Peshawar school roof collapse kills at least 32 children and a teacher, owner arrested

New Delhi: At least 32 children and a teacher were killed when a private school’s roof collapsed during lessons in Pakistan’s north-western city of Peshawar on Thursday, according to hospital officials cited by international news agencies. Dozens were injured in the disaster, which police initially attributed to excessive construction weight on a structurally weak building.

The collapse struck Al-Khair Education Center in the city’s Dir Colony area, bringing down classrooms while children were inside. Police arrested the school’s owner, and authorities ordered an investigation to establish how the building failed and who was responsible for its condition.

According to Pakistani media account of the disaster, a roof on an upper level gave way and fell onto the floor beneath it, causing a further collapse onto students below. The initial police assessment pointed to overloading of an already weak structure, although the precise cause remained subject to investigation.

Residents were among the first to reach the school, which stood in a congested neighbourhood, before emergency crews began pulling children from the wreckage. Television footage showed injured pupils being carried through the debris as ambulances arrived to take casualties to hospital.

The provincial emergency service, Rescue 1122, deployed more than 60 personnel, 16 ambulances and two disaster-response vehicles, its spokesperson, Bilal Ahmad Faizi, said. Rescuers initially feared that more children remained beneath the collapsed roofs as teams searched the damaged classrooms.

Hours later, rescue officials said everyone trapped beneath the rubble had been recovered and crews were clearing debris. Lady Reading Hospital declared an emergency, with some of the wounded reported to be in critical condition.

Casualty figures changed as hospitals and rescue agencies updated their accounts: earlier reports recorded 27 children and a teacher dead, while subsequent local reports put the toll at 32 children and a teacher. Reports also differed on the number injured, ranging from more than 30 to more than 50, underscoring that the figures remained provisional.

The prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif, expressed grief over the deaths and offered condolences to the bereaved families. His office’s statement followed reports that most of the children killed were younger than 13.

The disaster adds to a series of fatal building failures in Pakistan, where poor construction materials and inadequate safety standards have repeatedly been identified as concerns. A roof collapse at a tutoring centre in Lahore had killed more than a dozen children in June this year.

Another collapse in Karachi’s Lyari area in 2025 killed 27 people when a five-storey building came down. In Peshawar, the investigation must now establish how a building that police described as structurally weak continued to accommodate classrooms and whether the construction above them had been assessed for safety.