The roof of a school in northwestern Pakistan has collapsed, killing at least 34 students and a teacher and injuring more than 45 others, authorities and rescue officials said, Al Jazeera reports.
The incident happened on Thursday at Al-Khair Education Centre, a private school in Peshawar, the capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
Mohammad Asim, spokesman for Lady Reading Hospital, where many victims were transported, said the fatalities include 12 girls and a female teacher. He added that some of the injured were in critical condition.
Most of the children killed or injured were between six and 12 years old, and the oldest was 14, Asim said. The hospital has declared an emergency as medical staff treat the wounded.
At least 45 children suffered injuries, ranging from minor wounds to severe trauma, said Arif Khattak, regional director of the Rescue Department.
“The school was very poorly built with just steel girders, mud bricks, and in some cases, wooden beams to hold the three-storey structure,” said Al Jazeera’s Kamal Hyder, reporting from Islamabad.
Television footage showed rescuers clawing through debris with their bare hands and carrying bloodied children to waiting ambulances as residents crowded the narrow alley where the school stood.
A higher-floor roof collapsed onto classrooms below, crumpling two storeys of the building, a rescue official said.
