At least 20 children and a female teacher were killed on Thursday when the roof of a school collapsed during classes in Peshawar, in northwestern Pakistan, officials said.
Dozens of others were injured when the roof caved in at the school, a private establishment in the city’s Dir Colony neighborhood, leaving students buried beneath the debris.
Emergency workers rushed to the scene and began searching through the wreckage, local news media reported. Lady Reading Hospital, the city’s main public medical facility, declared an emergency as ambulances brought in the dead and wounded.
Muhammad Asim, a hospital spokesman, said all of the children who died were aged 13 or younger. Mian Saeed, the city’s top police officer, said more than 40 people were injured.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif expressed grief over the deaths and directed authorities to speed up rescue operations and ensure the injured received the best available medical care.
The cause of the collapse was not immediately clear, but similar tragedies have claimed the lives of schoolchildren in Pakistan in recent months. In June, a building collapse at a school in the eastern city of Lahore killed 14 children.
Pakistan has one of the world’s largest youth populations, and privately run schools have mushroomed in low-income neighborhoods to meet the growing demand for affordable education. Many operate on limited budgets and often in buildings that lack adequate safety measures and structural safeguards.
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