At least 33 pupils and a teacher have been killed after a school roof collapsed in the north-western Pakistani city of Peshawar, according to hospital officials.<\/p>\n
More than a dozen others are injured, with some in a critical condition.<\/p>\n
Emergency services were called to the private Al-Khair school in Dir Colony at 08:48 (03:48 GMT) on Thursday after lessons had begun, rescue official Bilal Faizi told reporters.<\/p>\n
The roof of an upper-floor classroom had collapsed, he said, causing ceilings below to cave in and trap children beneath the debris.<\/p>\n
Announcing the arrest of the school’s owner, police chief Mian Saeed promised a thorough inquiry into “whether there were any violations of building codes”.<\/p>\n
Warning: This article contains distressing details<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n
An English teacher from a nearby school said he immediately rushed to the site with other local residents when they heard sirens and the sound of ambulances.<\/p>\n
Together, they pulled more than 20 children from the rubble, he said.<\/p>\n
“I personally pulled out six children with my own hands. Most of them were alive and talking. But later it was found that they had passed away.”<\/p>\n
“There was a lot of blood,” he said. “One child said he was in a lot of pain. His tongue had dried up in his mouth, [and he was] asking for water.”<\/p>\n
Sohail, another local resident, said he and others tried to remove children from under the rubble “using shovels”.<\/p>\n
The school building had been constructed on a temporary basis, according to emergency official Arif Khattak.<\/p>\n
Earlier reports suggested the destroyed classrooms were in a two-storey part of the building, but Peshawar police chief Mian Saeed later confirmed that classrooms on three floors had been brought down.<\/p>\n
There were about 30 pupils in the top class, 40 in the middle and 45 on the ground floor, he said.<\/p>\n
It appears that when the roof of the top-floor classroom collapsed, the falling rubble crashed through classrooms below, bringing their ceilings down too.<\/p>\n
Saeed said the entire structure, which had “substandard” roof slabs, was “overloaded” and beyond the limit of how much weight it could bear.<\/p>\n
The school is on a very narrow street, meaning it was difficult for rescue workers to reach the site and transport the injured to hospitals.<\/p>\n
Peshawar’s Lady Reading Hospital reported the deaths of 32 children and a teacher while Naseerullah Khan Babar Memorial Hospital reported one child dead.<\/p>\n
The police chief said the building was still “extremely dangerous” and urged people to move away.<\/p>\n
The Governor of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Faisal Karim Kundi, has ordered a safety audit of all schools in the province to “identify potential risks and ensure that immediate corrective measures are taken wherever necessary”.<\/p>\n
“We cannot allow the safety of our children to be compromised,” he said.<\/p>\n
Furious family members of deceased pupils accused the school of ignoring safety concerns. “Make an example of them, a lesson for all,” Mohammad Zaman, a man who lost two nephews in the disaster, told Reuters news agency.<\/p>\n
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