PESHAWAR, Pakistan — At least 28 children and a teacher have been killed in a school roof collapse in northwestern Pakistan.
More than 50 people were injured when the roof of a private school collapsed during morning classes in Peshawar on Thursday, October 15, 2026.
Police have arrested the school’s owner as investigators examine whether structural weaknesses contributed to the disaster.
The collapse occurred at Al-Khair School in the Dir Colony area of Peshawar, the capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
Authorities said the victims were aged 13 or younger. Several of the injured remained in critical condition.
Children Trapped as School Floors Collapse
The disaster occurred inside a three-storey building while children were attending classes.
According to emergency officials, an upper section of the building gave way, bringing down parts of the floors beneath it and trapping pupils and teachers under concrete and other debris.
The collapse triggered a major rescue operation involving emergency workers, police, military personnel, and residents.
Television footage showed rescuers carrying injured children from the building as ambulances arrived to transport casualties to hospital.
Some children were pulled from the wreckage with visible injuries, while emergency crews worked to reach others trapped beneath collapsed sections of the structure.
Iftikhar Khan, a district emergency officer, told Reuters that rescue teams had initially recovered at least 45 children.
Officials said approximately 110 pupils had been inside three classrooms affected by the collapse.
Early in the rescue operation, authorities feared that many children remained trapped beneath the debris.
By later in the day, rescue officials said everyone known to have been trapped had been recovered, although workers continued clearing the wreckage.
Hospital Declares Emergency as Death Toll Rises
Most of the casualties were taken to Lady Reading Hospital, a major public hospital in Peshawar.
Hospital spokesperson Mohammad Asim confirmed that 28 children and a female teacher had died.
The hospital declared an emergency to accommodate the influx of casualties.
Medical personnel treated more than 50 injured people, including children whose conditions were described as critical.
The death toll rose throughout the morning as rescue workers recovered more victims and hospitals confirmed additional fatalities.
Initial reports placed the number of dead at 18 before authorities revised the figure upwards.
According to the Associated Press, the children who died or were injured were all aged 13 or younger.
Six girls were among those killed, hospital officials said.
An injured teacher, Mahwish Zaman, told the AP that she was inside her classroom when the building collapsed.
She said the collapse happened suddenly and that she regained consciousness after being taken to hospital.
Zaman estimated that approximately 1,200 pupils were enrolled at the school, which provided education from nursery through fifth grade.
The authorities have not independently confirmed that enrolment figure.
Parents Search for Children Amid Wreckage
The collapse brought parents and residents rushing to the school in an attempt to help those trapped inside.
Local people joined emergency workers in removing debris from the damaged building.
Some residents arrived before specialist rescue teams reached the scene.
Samiullah Khan, who lives nearby, told the AP that he helped rescue three girls after hearing about the collapse.
His own son, a pupil at the school, survived because he had stepped outside his classroom to drink water shortly before the roof fell.
Another resident, Mohammad Khan, described the efforts to remove debris carefully while searching for children and staff.
At Lady Reading Hospital, families gathered to seek information about their children.
Some parents moved between the hospital and the school as emergency workers continued recovering casualties.
The school is situated in a densely populated part of Peshawar, making access difficult for emergency vehicles and heavy rescue equipment.
Local residents helped clear routes for ambulances transporting injured children to hospital.
Police Arrest School Owner Over Structural Safety Concerns
Peshawar police chief Mian Saeed said investigators believed the school building had serious structural weaknesses.
He told Reuters that the roof appeared to have been overloaded by construction on an inadequate supporting structure.
“It was a weak building structure,” Saeed said.
The police chief said the additional weight had contributed to the collapse.
However, the precise cause remains subject to an official investigation.
Police subsequently arrested the owner of the private school.
The owner’s identity and any formal criminal charges had not been publicly confirmed.
The provincial government established an inquiry committee to examine the collapse and determine whether construction or safety regulations had been violated.
Officials are also investigating the condition of the building before the disaster and whether it was suitable for use as a school.
Authorities have not announced the inquiry’s findings.
Pakistani President and Prime Minister Demand Investigation
Pakistan’s President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif expressed condolences to the families of the victims.
In a statement reported by Radio Pakistan, Zardari described the disaster as a national tragedy.
“The entire nation shares the grief of the affected families in this hour of sorrow,” he said.
The president called for a comprehensive investigation and directed the authorities to provide medical treatment and assistance to those affected.
Sharif also expressed sorrow over the deaths and instructed officials to ensure that injured children received appropriate treatment.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Governor Faisal Karim Kundi sought a detailed report from the relevant authorities.
He directed officials to investigate the circumstances of the collapse and ensure that injured pupils received medical assistance.
Provincial government spokesperson Samar Haroon Bilour said emergency workers had been mobilised and that the government was providing resources for the rescue operation.
Building Safety Concerns in Pakistan
The disaster has renewed attention to construction safety in Pakistan, where building collapses have repeatedly caused deaths and injuries.
According to the AP, weak enforcement of construction regulations and the use of substandard materials have contributed to previous structural failures.
In July, four schoolchildren were killed when the roof of a tutoring centre under construction collapsed in Lahore.
The latest incident has raised questions about the safety of private educational facilities operating in buildings originally designed for other purposes.
Officials have not established whether the Al-Khair School building met the necessary construction and occupancy requirements.
The provincial inquiry is expected to examine those questions alongside the circumstances of the roof’s failure.
For families of the victims, the immediate focus remains on the identification of those killed, treatment of the injured, and recovery of children who survived the collapse.
Police said their investigation was continuing following the arrest of the school’s owner.
