At least 33 people, including 32 schoolchildren and a teacher, have died after the roof of a school collapsed during morning classes in Peshawar, northwestern Pakistan.
The incident occurred at about 8:48 a.m. local time on Thursday at the privately operated Al-Khair Education Center, according to police and rescue officials.
Rescue workers spent four to five hours searching through the rubble for survivors as distraught parents and relatives gathered outside the building for news of their children.
Most of the students killed were below the age of 13. Mohammad Asim, a spokesperson for Lady Reading Hospital, said the fatalities included 12 girls and a female teacher.
At least 45 people sustained major and minor injuries, according to Arif Khattak, the regional director of the Rescue Department.
Asim said three children were in critical condition with head injuries. Most of the 20 injured people taken to Lady Reading Hospital had received treatment and been discharged.
Footage broadcast by local television stations showed rescuers digging through debris with their bare hands and carrying injured children to waiting ambulances.
A rescue official said the roof of an upper floor collapsed onto students in classrooms below, causing two storeys of the building to crumple.
Peshawar police chief Mian Saeed attributed the collapse to structural weaknesses and excessive construction on the roof.
“It was a weak building structure,” Saeed said, adding that the roof was overloaded, contributing to the collapse.
Police have arrested the school’s owner, while authorities have launched an investigation into the incident.
Relatives of the victims accused the school management of ignoring concerns about the building’s condition and called for those responsible to be held accountable.
Mohammad Zaman, who lost two nephews in the collapse, urged authorities to take decisive action against those responsible.
“Make an example of them, a lesson for all, so that no one dares open a school just to make money without providing facilities,” he said.
Earlier, Saeed warned that the death toll could rise, saying only 47 of the 110 students reportedly present in three classrooms had been rescued at that stage.
School officials had not issued an immediate comment.
Pakistan’s Prime Minister, Shehbaz Sharif, expressed sorrow over the tragedy and extended condolences to the victims’ families, according to a statement from his office.
