A private school roof came down on students in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar on Thursday, killing at least 28 people and injuring more than 50, officials said. Most of the dead were children, and the toll could still climb.
The Associated Press counted 28 children and a female teacher among the dead, six of them girls. Every child killed or hurt was 13 or younger, a hospital spokesman said. Other outlets gave different totals, covered below.
Police have arrested the school’s owner and call the building structurally weak.
What We Know So Far
The roof gave way during lessons at a three story building in a crowded part of central Peshawar, the capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. Reuters named the school as the privately run Al Khair Education Center. The Express Tribune put it in the densely populated Dir Colony.
Several children were trapped under the rubble at first. Hours later, rescue officials said everyone buried had been pulled out and crews were clearing debris. District emergency officer Iftikhar Khan said at least 45 children had been taken out. A rescue official described a higher floor roof falling onto the students and crushing two stories below it.
Lady Reading Hospital, where most of the dead and injured were taken, declared an emergency, and some patients are in critical condition. At Naseerullah Babar Hospital, two people died and 33 children went home after initial treatment. Army personnel joined the rescue, though narrow streets slowed ambulances.
Neighbors got there first. Samiullah Khan helped pull out three girls. His own son survived only because he had stepped out of class for a drink of water. Parents crowded outside the school and the hospital, waiting for news.
Mahwish Zaman, a teacher, told the AP from her hospital bed that she was in her classroom when the roof fell and that it felt as though the sky was coming down. She woke up in the hospital.
What Authorities Are Saying
The school’s owner is in custody and a case will be registered, said Peshawar’s police chief, Saeed. “It was a weak building structure,” he said, adding that the roof carried too much weight for what stood beneath it. The slab was built with choka, thin flat clay tiles or tapered bricks, and the building looked overloaded. Officials will work out which building rules were broken and who is responsible.
A provincial committee will investigate. Gov. Faisal Karim Kundi asked for a report on the cause and ordered the best possible care for the injured.
President Asif Ali Zardari said the whole nation shares the families’ grief. He called for a full investigation and for school buildings to meet safety standards. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif sent condolences and told rescuers to speed up, and Bilawal Bhutto Zardari voiced his grief as well.
Differing Accounts
The sources do not agree on several numbers.
The AP put the dead at 28 children and one female teacher. Reuters counted at least 27 students and a teacher. The Express Tribune listed 28 children and two female teachers, although its hospital spokesman said 28 bodies, two of them teachers, reached Lady Reading Hospital. The AP and The Express Tribune both counted more than 50 injured.
Enrollment is also in dispute. Zaman told the AP the school had about 1,200 students from nursery through fifth grade. The police chief gave 110, and said only 47 of the 110 students in three classrooms at the time had been rescued. A police official in The Express Tribune said 30 children were in upper floor classrooms. The police chief is Saeed Ahmed in the AP and Mian Saeed in the other two. Officials have not reconciled the figures.
Why This Matters
Building collapses are common in Pakistan, where construction rules are loosely enforced, many structures use cheap materials and safety regulations are often ignored to save money. In July, a roof collapsed at a tutoring center under construction in Lahore and killed four schoolchildren.
Thursday’s disaster puts school buildings under the spotlight. If police are right that the roof was overloaded on a weak structure, the harder questions are who approved the building and whether anyone ever inspected it.
What Happens Next
The provincial committee will look into why the roof failed, and police will register a case against the owner. The toll may change as hospitals update their counts and as crews clear the building, which the police chief warned is still dangerous.
Sources: the Associated Press, Reuters and The Express Tribune
