The death toll from Thursday’s Peshawar school roof collapse has risen to at least 35, including 34 children and a female teacher, hospital officials said, as police detained the owner of the private school.
The roof of the Al-Khair Education Centre, a private three-storey school in a congested neighbourhood of central Peshawar, gave way at about 8:48am while morning classes were under way. The upper section fell onto the classrooms below, bringing down two levels. The school taught an estimated 1,200 students from nursery to fifth grade.
Hospital officials said 12 of the dead were girls. All the children killed or injured were aged 13 or younger, and three children with serious head injuries remained in critical condition at Lady Reading Hospital. Rescue work continued for four to five hours, with residents among the first to help pull children from the rubble.
Police point to weak structure in Peshawar school roof collapse
Peshawar Capital City Police Officer Dr Mian Saeed Ahmed said the roof was overloaded with construction built on a weak structure. Police have detained the school’s owner, Mohammad Khan, who suggested that rain earlier in the week had weakened the roof. Authorities have not confirmed whether the weather played a role.
The provincial government has formed an inquiry committee. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Governor Faisal Karim Kundi ordered a detailed examination of the incident and structural safety inspections at educational institutions across the province.
President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif expressed grief over the deaths. The President called for a comprehensive investigation and said school buildings must meet safety standards.
Building safety concerns
Building collapses are not uncommon in Pakistan, where construction rules are often weakly enforced and substandard materials are frequently used. In July, a roof collapse at a tutoring centre under construction in Lahore killed four schoolchildren.
