Pakistan school owner arrested after roof collapse kills at least 34 children in Peshawar during morning lessons
Rubble and debris in Dir Colony, Peshawar. A private school roof collapsed without warning on Thursday morning in northwestern Pakistan, killing at least 17 students and leaving more than three dozen others injured.
At least 34 pupils and a teacher were killed when the roof of the privately run Al-Khair Education Center in Peshawar collapsed during morning classes on Thursday, with 45 others injured and three children in critical condition with head injuries. The school's owner has been arrested after police confirmed the three-storey building was structurally weak and overloaded with additional construction it could not bear. Injured teacher Mahwish Zaman said from her hospital bed that it felt as though the sky had fallen on her.
Peshawar police chief Mian Saeed said the building was housed in a makeshift structure with 'substandard' roof slabs carrying more weight than it could hold.
One bereaved uncle, Mohammad Zaman, who lost two nephews, demanded: 'Make an example of them so no one dares open a school just to make money.'
A boy survived only because he had stepped out of his classroom to drink water moments BEFORE the upper-floor roof crashed through the storeys below.
