ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — At least 30 children and one teacher were killed, and dozens injured, when the roof of a school in the northern Pakistani city of Peshawar collapsed Thursday while class was in session, local authorities told reporters.
Rescue workers, police and local residents pulled victims from the rubble. The injured were taken to the city’s Lady Reading Hospital.
In footage from the scene shown by local outlets, rescue workers dug through debris with their bare hands and rushed children to ambulances as residents crowded a narrow lane outside.
Mian Saeed, Peshawar’s police chief, told reporters the building had shown structural weaknesses. Its owner had been arrested and an investigation was underway, he said.
A spokesman for Pakistan’s emergency services department, Bilal Faizi, told the Associated Press that two classrooms has been caught in the collapse. Rescue teams arrived within five minutes of being alerted, he said.
Provincial governor Faisal Karim Kundi attended funeral prayers and visited the site. He told reporters that anyone found responsible for the roof collapse would face repercussions.
A report on the findings of an initial inquiry will be submitted within four days, he said.
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