34 Children and Their Teacher Die as Peshawar School Roof Collapses
October 16, 2026 · Frisian News
Photo: Wikimedia Commons
At least 34 pupils and a female teacher died on Thursday when the roof of the Al Khair Education Center in Peshawar collapsed during morning classes, killing children as young as six.
Peshawar police chief Saeed Ahmed said 110 students were sitting in three classrooms at the Al Khair Education Center that Thursday morning when, at 8:48, the roof of a higher floor gave way and brought two storeys of the building down. At least 34 of those children died. So did their female teacher.
Rescue workers spent four to five hours pulling victims from the debris. Nearly 100 responders worked the site, Al Jazeera reported, joined by parents using their bare hands. Lady Reading Hospital declared an emergency. Among the dead were 12 girls and the female teacher, hospital spokesperson Mohammad Asim told Al Jazeera. Three children remained in critical condition with head injuries. The youngest victims were six years old; the oldest was 14.
Injured teacher Mahwish Zaman told the Associated Press, as reported by CBS News, that around 1,200 students were enrolled at the school. Al Jazeera's correspondent Kamal Hyder, reporting from Islamabad, described the structure as built from steel girders, mud bricks, and in some cases wooden beams. The school sat on a narrow alley in a poor district of Peshawar, the capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The street was so tight that rescue teams struggled to reach the site quickly, witness Zahir Hussain told CBS News.
Ahmed said the roof "was overloaded with construction on a weak structure, which caused the collapse," and confirmed that the school's owner, Mohammad Khan, had been arrested. Khan blamed the week's heavy rains for weakening the roof. Police said the investigation was continuing.
Pakistan spends less than 1 per cent of its approximately $450 billion GDP on education, The Guardian reported, leaving families dependent on low-cost private schools operating in poorly maintained buildings with limited oversight. Reuters quoted relatives of the dead accusing school officials of ignoring complaints about the building's condition before Thursday's collapse. Hussain told CBS News the building was "not suitable for use as a school at all."
In June, at least 14 children died when a roof collapsed at a tutoring centre in Lahore. Al Jazeera's Hyder asked why the government was not enforcing building codes after those deaths. Thursday's collapse in Peshawar killed more than twice as many.
Mohammad Zaman, who lost two nephews in the collapse, told The Guardian: "Make an example of them, a lesson for all, so that no one dares open a school just to make money without providing facilities." Khyber Pakhtunkhwa governor Faisal Karim Kundi ordered a safety audit of all schools in the province, Breitbart reported.
Pakistan has building codes. Thirty-four children just found out what they are worth.
Published October 16, 2026 · Frisian News