School roof collapse in Peshawar kills at least 28 children and a teacher

At least 29 people, 28 of them schoolchildren, were killed on Thursday morning when the roof of a private school collapsed in Peshawar, in north-west Pakistan, while classes were under way.

The upper floor of Al-Khair School in the Afridi Abad area gave way and crushed the storey beneath it. The students who died were between seven and 16 years old. A female teacher was also killed, and 19 people were injured.

Lady Reading Hospital, where an emergency was declared, received 28 of the dead. One more died at Naseerullah Khan Babar Memorial Hospital. The toll climbed through the morning, from 21 to 28 and then 29.

Parents at the rubble

Samiullah, who has six children at the school, said he “received a call from home at around 8:50 am” and reached the building ten minutes later. He pulled three girls, all younger than eight, from the debris. He was sure his own son was dead, because the boy’s classroom was on the ground floor, directly under the floor that fell. The child had stepped out to fetch water moments before the collapse and survived.

Rescue 1122 spokesperson Bilal Ahmed Faizi said rescuers worked to pull out those trapped and took about 20 people, students and teachers among them, to hospital. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police chief Zulfiqar Hameed told traffic police to clear a “green corridor” so ambulances could move without stopping.

Later in the day the operation was called off. “Rescue teams have cleared all the debris, and no more injured children are at the scene,” Peshawar Deputy Commissioner Afaq Wazir said.

A weak building, an extra load

Peshawar’s Capital City Police Officer, Dr Mian Saeed Ahmed, put the collapse down to the building itself. “Its roof was overweight with construction on a weak structure that caused the collapse,” he said.

Governor Faisal Karim Kundi, who is running the province under governor’s rule, asked for a detailed report on the cause and ordered a structural safety audit of educational institutions across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. “We cannot allow the safety of our children to be compromised,” he said.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif took “serious notice” of the disaster, Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar said, and ordered every possible medical help and quicker relief. Dar called the children the country’s “most precious asset”. President Asif Ali Zardari expressed “profound shock and grief” and called for a full investigation and a check of safety standards in school buildings.

Not the first this year

Collapses of roofs and walls, often blamed on poor construction and cheap materials, have killed children across Pakistan in recent months. In June, 14 children died when the roof of a private tuition centre fell in Lahore’s Kahna area. The same month, four children were killed at a private school in Dera Ghazi Khan, where an inquiry later found that work on an extension had been going on. In July, three girls died when the outer wall of a government primary school near Umerkot came down.