Pakistan school roof collapse: Female teacher, 28 students killed; dozens wounded

At least 29 people were killed and more than 50 were injured after a school building gave way in Pakistan’s Peshawar city on October 15.

Hours after the collapse in Peshawar, the capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, rescue officials told AP that everyone trapped beneath the rubble had been pulled out and rescue-teams were clearing the debris.

The incident was reported from a private school. All the 28 children killed were aged 13 or younger. The 29th deceased was a female teacher, the Express Tribune reported citing Muhammad Asim, spokesperson for Lady Reading Hospital (LRH).


Some of the injured were in critical conditions, Asim confirmed to AP.

Mahwish Zaman, an injured teacher speaking from a hospital bed, told AP that the three-story school had an estimated 1,200 students enrolled in nursery through fifth grade.

The teacher said she was in her classroom when the roof collapsed and felt as if the sky had fallen and later regained consciousness in the hospital.

The hospital declared an emergency following the incident, as medical teams treated the injured.

According to reports, residents were among the first to reach the school in a congested neighbourhood in central Peshawar, the capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province Rescue workers arrived within minutes of being alerted, AP reported.

Hospital administrators were present in the trauma ward to supervise treatment, while some of the patients were reported to be in critical condition.

Rescue 1122 dispatched ambulances and disaster response vehicles to the site, where teams began efforts to pull people from the debris.

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The search operation was continuing as rescuers looked for survivors and others who might have been trapped beneath the collapsed structure.

The possibility of additional casualties remained a concern as the operation progressed, authorities said.

This comes a few months after a similar collapse at an under-construction Lahore tuition center kiiled four schoolchildren.

Building collapses are common in Pakistan, where construction standards are often poorly enforced, an AP report said. Many structures are built with substandard materials, and safety regulations are frequently ignored to reduce costs, it noted.