Pakistan school roof collapse kills at least 34 children and teacher

At least 34 schoolchildren and a female teacher have died after the roof of a school collapsed during morning classes in the northern Pakistani city ⁠of Peshawar.As panicked parents ​and relatives thronged the site of the privately run al-Khair school to search for their loved ones, rescue workers spent hours pulling children from the rubble.Most of the victims were under 13 years old ⁠and from low-income households. At least 45 children suffered injuries, ranging from minor wounds to severe trauma, said Arif Khattak, the regional director of emergency services.Television footage showed rescuers clawing through debris with their bare hands and carrying bloodied children to ⁠waiting ambulances as people crowded the alley where the school stood.The roof of a higher floor collapsed on to classrooms below, crumpling two ​storeys of the building, a rescue official said. “The fatalities include ‌12 girl students and a female teacher,” said the Lady ‌Reading hospital spokesperson, Mohammad Asim. Three children remained in critical condition with head injuries, while most of the injured taken to the hospital ‌had been treated and discharged, he added.The incident took place at 8.48am local time (0348 GMT) and the rescue operation lasted for four to five hours, Khattak said. “It was a weak building structure,” said the Peshawar police chief, Mian Saeed. “Its roof was overloaded with construction on a weak structure, which caused the collapse.”Saeed said the school’s owner had been arrested and an investigation launched. A total of 110 students were attending lessons in three classrooms when the roof caved in.Mourners attend funeral prayers for children who died in the roof collapse. Photograph: Maaz Awan/APDistraught relatives accused the school of ignoring concerns about ‌the building’s condition and demanded accountability. “Make an example of them, a lesson for all, so that no one dares open a school just to make money without providing facilities,” said Mohammad Zaman, who lost two nephews in the collapse.The ​school was located in a poor, crowded neighbourhood of Peshawar, the capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, where Pakistan’s president imposed a state of emergency on Sunday, saying the provincial government had failed to tackle Islamist militancy from neighbouring Afghanistan, an allegation it denied.Pakistan spends less than 1% of its approximately $450bn (£340bn) GDP on education, leaving many families dependent on low-cost private schools.Many of those schools operate from poorly maintained rented buildings with limited oversight, contributing to recurring safety concerns. In June, at least ⁠14 children died when the roof of a tutoring centre housed in a dilapidated building collapsed in the ​eastern city of Lahore.There was no immediate comment ​from school officials.The country’s prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif, expressed ​sorrow over the tragedy and offered condolences to the victims’ families, his office said.Jawad Ahmad, whose son and daughter survived the incident, said the ‌news had left him devastated. “It felt ​as if someone had shot ​me in the chest when I learned that the school building had collapsed,” he said.The province, governed for years by the party of the jailed former prime minister Imran Khan, has frequently been at odds with the federal administration. Pakistan’s president, Asif Ali Zardari, imposed a new governor on the province when he declared the state of emergency on Sunday, sharpening the tensions.