Rescue work is largely complete as police begin an investigation into who approved the school building.
At least 33 children and two female teachers have died after the roof of a private school collapsed in Dir Colony, Peshawar. Fifty-two others, most of them children, were injured and shifted to Lady Reading Hospital (LRH).
According to an LRH spokesperson, 29 bodies were brought to the hospital at first, including a female teacher and 28 children. A second teacher died later. The children who lost their lives were between seven and 13 years old, and six of them were girls. Three girls are also among the injured.
The Pakistan Army and emergency response agencies took part in the rescue operation, working together to pull children and staff out from under the rubble and move them to hospital. The hospital declared an emergency soon after the first casualties arrived.
LRH spokesperson Muhammad Asim said treating the injured was the hospital’s top priority. The injured are being treated in the neurosurgery and intensive care departments, and 20 of them are in critical condition. He said no negligence would be tolerated in their treatment.
Rescue in-charge Bilal Ahmed said the emergency call was received at 8:48am and teams reached the site within five minutes. Sixteen ambulances were deployed, and about 95 percent of the operation had been completed. A clearance operation was still underway on one floor of the building. More than 40 children had been recovered from the rubble so far.
Peshawar Capital City Police Officer (CCPO) Mian Saeed said the school owner had been taken into custody and an FIR would be registered against the owners. A thorough investigation will determine who issued the No Objection Certificate (NOC) for the school and where responsibility lies.
He said the school was run by a trust, and about 110 students were in the building when the roof gave way. The three-storey building had one classroom on each floor. The ground floor held 45 children, the middle floor 40, and around 30 were in the top-floor classroom. Narrow streets in the area slowed the rescue work, he added.
At the scene, a grieving father said he had recovered the body of one of his daughters, while two children of his brother were still missing. Families kept waiting anxiously for news of their loved ones as rescue teams continued their work.
