Pakistan school roof collapse kills at least 28 children and one teacher
By Sophia Saifi, CNN
Lahore, Pakistan (CNN) — Twenty-eight children and a teacher were killed and dozens injured when the roof of a school in northern Pakistan collapsed on Thursday morning, authorities said.
Heavy overnight rainfall caused the roof of a two-story building at Al Khair Public School in the city of Peshawar to become unstable and later collapse, Bilal Ahmed of the local rescue services told CNN.
Some children are still trapped in the rubble and rescuers are working to reach them, he said.
Forty-seven children were injured, Asim Khan, spokesperson for the Lady Reading Hospital in Peshawar, told CNN. Video from the scene obtained by CNN showed ambulances rushing through narrow streets and crowds gathered outside the school building.
Local residents were among the first people to reach the scene, and rescue workers arrived within minutes, The Associated Press reported citing eyewitnesses.
Building collapses are a common problem in Pakistan. Construction standards in the country are often poorly enforced, and many structures are built with substandard materials.
Pakistan’s President Asif Ali Zardari called the incident a “heart-wrenching tragedy” and called for a comprehensive investigation into the cause of the deadly collapse.
“In this hour of sorrow, the entire nation shares equally in the grief of the affected families,” the president’s office posted on X.
The collapse comes just weeks after a fire tore through a hospital in the capital Islamabad, killing at least 14 newborns and sparking widespread anger and multiple arrests.
The fire was confined to a third-floor nursery but officials said it spread so quickly that staff were able to rescue only one baby from among the 15 being cared for there.
An inquiry found that the nursery had no fire alarm or sprinkler system and that the hospital lacked detailed procedures and training for responding to fires and other emergencies.
In July, a roof collapse at a tutoring center under construction in Pakistan’s eastern city of Lahore killed at least 14 schoolchildren, police and rescue officials said at the time.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
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