LAHORE — At least 32 schoolchildren and one teacher were killed when the roof of a school collapsed during classes on Thursday morning in northwestern Pakistan, police and rescue officials said.Rescue workers spent hours pulling children from the rubble of the privately-run Al-Khair Public School in Peshawar city, while panicked parents and relatives gathered outside the building seeking news of their loved ones.Heavy overnight rainfall caused the roof of the two-story school building to become unstable and later collapse, Bilal Ahmed of the local rescue services told CNN.The deceased children ranged in age from six to 14 years old, according to Lady Reading Hospital in Peshawar, where the victims were taken. A 25-year-old woman is also listed among the fatalities.Television footage showed rescuers clawing through debris with their bare hands and carrying bloodied children to waiting ambulances as relatives and residents crowded the narrow alley where the school stood.A higher-floor roof collapsed onto students in classrooms below, crumpling two storeys of the building, a rescue official said.”The fatalities include 12 girl students and a female teacher,” Lady Reading Hospital spokesperson Mohammad Asim said.Some children are still trapped in the rubble and rescuers are working to reach them, Ahmed said.Around 50 children were injured in the collapse, according to hospital figures. Several remain under medical observation. Video from the scene showed ambulances rushing through narrow streets and crowds gathered outside the school building.Three children were in critical condition, with head injuries, Asim said, adding that most of the 20 injured brought to that hospital had been treated and sent home.The incident took place at 8:48 a.m. local time (0348 GMT) and the rescue operation lasted for four to five hours, officials said.Local residents were among the first people to reach the scene, and rescue workers arrived within minutes, eyewitnesses said.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 said the incident was 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 school’s owner has been arrested, and an investigation launched into the incident, a police official in Peshawar told CNN.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.
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