A school roof collapsed on students in their classrooms in Peshawar’s Afridi Abad area on Thursday, killing 32 of them and a female teacher, a hospital spokesperson said.
The ceiling of Al-Khair School came down on the students after the roof of a higher floor collapsed, crumpling two storeys, a rescue official told AFP.
Capital City Police Officer Dr Mian Saeed Ahmed said the structure was weak.
“Its roof was overweight with construction on a weak structure that caused the collapse,” he said.
Lady Reading Hospital (LRH) spokesperson Muhammad Asim told Dawn the toll had risen from an earlier 28 to 33.
The dead students were aged between seven and 14.
Another 20 injured children were brought to the hospital, most of whom have since been discharged, while three with serious head injuries remain under treatment.
An emergency was declared at the hospital, according to DAWN.
Peshawar Deputy Commissioner Afaq Wazir told Geo News the rescue operation had concluded.
“Rescue teams have cleared all the debris, and no more injured children are at the scene,” he said.
Samiullah, a parent who rushed to the scene, told Dawn he rescued three girls, all under the age of eight.
He received a call from home at about 8:50am and reached the site around 10 minutes later; six of his children study at the school.
He feared his son, who was in a ground-floor classroom beneath the collapsed first floor, had died, but the boy had left the classroom to drink water.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Governor Faisal Karim Kundi sought a detailed report and ordered authorities to establish the cause.
He also directed a structural safety audit of educational institutions across the province to “identify potential risks and ensure that immediate corrective measures are taken wherever necessary”.
“We cannot allow the safety of our children to be compromised,” he wrote on X.
The Elementary and Secondary Education Department formed a fact-finding committee to establish the facts and factors behind the collapse, suggest preventive measures and make recommendations, with a report due on Thursday.
Its members are Javid Iqbal, chairman of the Private Schools Regulatory Authority, department deputy secretary Muhammad Farooq, and a member to be co-opted by the committee.
Separately, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Inspector General Zulfiqar Hameed ordered the capital city police officer to oversee the rescue and told traffic police to create a “green corridor” for ambulances.
Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar said Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had taken “serious notice”.
The prime minister expressed “deep grief and sorrow”, directed that “all possible medical assistance” be provided and ordered relief operations expedited.
“We will ensure a thorough investigation into this tragedy and take every necessary step to protect the safety of children in schools across the country,” he said on X.
President Asif Ali Zardari voiced “profound shock and grief” and called for a comprehensive investigation into the cause and for all school buildings to meet safety standards.
PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari said he was “deeply saddened”, while his sister, MNA Aseefa Bhutto-Zardari, said those responsible for children’s safety must be held accountable.
Building and roof collapses are common in Pakistan, often blamed on poor safety standards and substandard construction materials.
On June 30, 14 children died when the roof of a private tuition centre collapsed in Lahore’s Kahna area, less than two months after four children were killed and 20 people injured at a private school in Dera Ghazi Khan.
In July, three girls aged 3 to 13 were killed when part of a government primary school’s outer wall near Umerkot fell on them, and a child died, with at least five others injured, when an under-construction private school’s roof collapsed in Lahore’s Baghbanpura.
Last week, two men died in Pakpattan when their house roof collapsed in heavy rain and a windstorm.
