29 dead, including 28 children, after private school roof collapses in Peshawar

The roof of a private school in Peshawar, the capital of Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, collapsed on Thursday, Oct. 15, killing 28 children and a female teacher. Six of the dead were girls, according to a hospital spokesman.

Hospital spokesman Mohammad Asim said all the children killed or injured were 13 or younger. Some of the injured were in critical condition, he said, and Lady Reading Hospital, a state-run facility, declared an emergency.

Rescue in a congested neighborhood

The school sits in a crowded part of central Peshawar. Bilal Faizi, a spokesman for the emergency services, said several children were trapped under the rubble in the first hours. Rescue officials later said everyone trapped had been pulled out and crews were clearing debris.

Residents were among the first to arrive. Samiullah Khan, a neighbor, said he rushed over and helped pull out three girls. His own son survived because he had stepped out of his classroom to drink water.

Al Jazeera's Kamal Hyder, reporting from Islamabad, said heavy machinery could not get to the site because of the narrow streets. Locals and rescue teams, he said, were using buckets and utensils to move debris.

Outside the school and at the hospital, parents waited for word on their children.

Casualty and enrollment figures differ

The death toll of 29 is consistent across most accounts. The injury count is not. The hospital spokesman's figure, relayed by the Associated Press, was more than 50 injured. Other accounts of the same hospital and rescue statements put it at more than three dozen, and Times of India cited officials saying more than 40. Al Jazeera's early report said more than 20.

Enrollment is also unclear. Mahwish Zaman, an injured teacher speaking from her hospital bed, told the AP the three-story school had an estimated 1,200 students from nursery through fifth grade. Hyder put registered enrollment at about 350. Al Jazeera identified the school as Al-Khair Education Centre.

Zaman said she was in her classroom when the roof came down. "She felt as if the sky had fallen," the AP wrote, and she regained consciousness in the hospital.

Owner arrested, cause under investigation

Peshawar police chief Saeed Ahmed said the school's owner has been arrested. He said the building was structurally weak. No charges have been detailed publicly, and no official has said what specifically failed.

The provincial government said a committee has been formed to investigate the cause. Gov. Faisal Karim Kundi expressed sorrow, asked the relevant authorities for a report on the collapse and directed officials to give the injured the best possible medical care.

Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar posted on X: "Our children are our most precious asset, and every such loss is a tragedy for the entire country." He added that the prime minister and government "have taken serious note of the situation." Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif also extended condolences to the families.

A pattern of collapses

Building and roof collapses are common in Pakistan. Construction standards are often poorly enforced, and many structures use substandard materials. Euronews reports that safety rules are frequently ignored to cut costs, and the Times of India cites poor safety standards and substandard construction materials.

School buildings have been hit repeatedly this year. In June, 14 children died when the roof of a private tuition center collapsed in Lahore's Kahna area. In July, three girls between 3 and 13 were killed when part of the outer wall of a government primary school near Umerkot collapsed. A classroom roof also collapsed at a private school in Dera Ghazi Khan, killing four children and injuring 20.

Those earlier cases involved both private and government buildings.

What the committee has to answer

A three-story building held what may have been hundreds of children in a dense neighborhood. Provincial authorities have not said whether it was inspected, who approved it or whether it was built to code. Those are the questions the provincial committee's report is meant to answer, and Gov. Kundi has asked for that report.