At least 28 people — 27 schoolchildren and a female teacher — were killed on Thursday when the roof of a private school in Peshawar collapsed while classes were underway, hospital and rescue officials said, in one of the deadliest school building failures Pakistan has seen in recent years.
Key Takeaways
- The roof of Al Khair School in Peshawar’s Afridi Abad locality gave way on Thursday morning while students were sitting in their classrooms.
- Lady Reading Hospital confirmed 28 deaths — 27 students aged 7 to 12 and one female teacher — with at least 19 more injured, five of them critically.
- Rescue 1122 said the search operation has concluded and all debris has been cleared; Peshawar’s deputy commissioner has ordered a probe into the cause.
- The tragedy is the latest in a string of fatal building collapses in Pakistan, where poor construction standards are routinely blamed.
What happened at Al Khair School
Students were sitting in their classrooms at Al Khair School on Thursday morning when the roof suddenly gave way, trapping dozens of children beneath the rubble, officials said. Rescue 1122 spokesperson Bilal Ahmed Faizi said emergency teams rushed about 20 people — students and teachers — to hospitals in the first hours, and pulled survivors from the debris through the morning.
Lady Reading Hospital spokesman Muhammad Asim confirmed to Dawn that the death toll stood at 28 by the afternoon — 27 students and one female teacher — revised upward through the day as more bodies were recovered from the rubble. The deceased students were aged between 7 and 12, according to the hospital, and five of the injured remained in critical condition. An emergency was declared at the hospital to handle the influx of casualties, officials said.
Speaking to Geo News, Peshawar Deputy Commissioner Afaq Wazir said the rescue operation had concluded. “Rescue teams have cleared all the debris, and no more injured children are at the scene,” he said. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Governor Faisal Karim Kundi expressed grief over the deaths and ordered a detailed report to determine what caused the collapse.
Why do school buildings collapse in Pakistan?
Roof and building collapses are a recurring tragedy in Pakistan, where construction standards are often poorly enforced and substandard materials are widely used to cut costs. Dawn reported that the pattern has been especially deadly for children: in June, 14 children were killed when the roof of a private tuition centre collapsed in Lahore’s Kahna area, and similar collapses this year killed children in Lahore’s Baghbanpura neighbourhood and in Dera Ghazi Khan.
Governor Kundi directed the authorities to establish the cause of the Peshawar collapse and to provide the best possible medical care to the injured children, according to an official statement.
Reporting by Dawn, Reuters, AP, AFP and Al Jazeera.
