PESHAWAR, Pakistan — The roof of a private school caved in during classes Thursday in this northwestern Pakistani city, leaving at least 35 people dead, most of them young children.
Hospital officials said most of the children who died were under 13, and a female teacher was among the victims. A rescue official said an upper-floor roof came down onto the first-floor roof, which then gave way onto students sitting in their classrooms in the Dir Colony area.
Rescue crews pulled 47 children from the debris and took them to hospitals, and one major hospital reported 20 injured children. Crews avoided heavy machinery because the damaged structure remained unstable, and narrow streets around the site made it hard to move equipment in.
Mian Saeed, the capital city police officer, said the owner of the school had been arrested. Police said the building had been poorly built, and that the school had been run as an educational trust.
Javed Iqbal, managing director of the provincial private schools regulator, said the school was registered in March 2026. He said technical staff were not present when it was inspected, adding that those found negligent would not be spared once an inquiry is complete.
Building collapses are common in Pakistan, where safety rules are loosely enforced and low-grade construction materials are often used. Four months ago, a roof failure at a private tutoring center in Lahore left 14 children dead.
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