In brief
The roof of the Al‑Khair school in Peshawar collapsed at 08:48, trapping 33 children and a teacher and injuring many more. The school, built on temporary foundations, failed to meet building‑code standards and was overloaded. Police and the governor have announced a province‑wide safety audit, while families demand accountability for the tragedy.
At least 33 children and a teacher were killed when the roof of a private school in Peshawar collapsed, hospital officials confirmed.
Dozens of students were trapped in debris, and more than a dozen sustained injuries, several of which are critical.
Emergency teams were dispatched at 08:48 local time after alarms rang inside the Al‑Khair school in Dir Colony, a neighbourhood in north‑western Peshawar.
According to the school’s owner, whose licence was already under investigation, the roof of an upper‑floor classroom fell, driving onto three levels below and shattering plastered walls that separated classrooms.
Police chief Mian Saeed said the building was “sub‑standard” and overloaded, exceeding permissible weight limits.
“We cannot trade our children’s safety for shortcuts in construction,” Governor Faisal Karim Kundi declared, ordering a province‑wide audit of all schools for immediate repairs.
Families of the deceased called for accountability, demanding that negligence be punished and that the incident serve as a lesson to all.
The incident follows a string of structural and fire tragedies in Pakistan, including a Lahore tuition centre roof collapse in June and a neonatal unit blaze in Islamabad in August.
