A school roof collapsed in the Pakistani city of Peshawar on Thursday, Oct. 15, 2026, killing at least 35 people.
The collapse at Al-Khair school, a private school in the Dir Colony neighborhood of congested central Peshawar, killed 34 children and a teacher and injured more than 50 others. Authorities and a hospital official called it the deadliest incident of its kind in the country.
Second- and third-grade children were sitting with their teachers when the roofs of two classrooms came down, Peshawar emergency services spokesperson Bilal Faizi said. Some children trapped beneath the rubble died of suffocation, Faizi said. He said the collapsed roof was a traditional structure of mud and bricks.
Lady Reading Hospital spokesman Mohammad Asim said the children killed or hurt were between six and 12 years old, and that the oldest victim was 14. The state-run hospital declared an emergency, and several of the wounded were in critical condition, Asim said.
Neighbors Reached the Rubble First
Ambulances and disaster management personnel arrived from a nearby facility within five minutes of the alert, and nearly 100 rescuers eventually joined the operation. Panicked and grieving parents were already helping by the time crews reached the site. The quick evacuation saved at least 40 lives, Faizi said, adding that more than a dozen children suffered minor injuries. Hours after the collapse, rescuers had pulled out everyone trapped and cleared the debris, he said.
Witnesses said neighbors reached the scene before many others. Zahir Hussain, a resident whose home sits two blocks from the school, was on his way to work when people began running into the street. The first-period lesson had barely begun, he told CBS News. Hussain said the street outside was so narrow that it slowed the rescue teams. “The building was not suitable for use as a school at all,” he said.
Samiullah Khan, another resident, rushed to the building and helped pull out three girls. His son, a student there, survived because he had left his classroom for a drink of water.
Mahwish Zaman, a teacher injured in the collapse, spoke from her hospital bed. She said about 1,200 students were enrolled, from nursery through fifth grade. Zaman was in her classroom when the roof came down. She said it felt as though the sky had fallen, and she regained consciousness in the hospital.
Officials said around 300 students were believed to be studying in the three-story building when the ceiling caved in, with about 100 in the three damaged classrooms.
Warnings About Rainwater in Classrooms
Relatives said they had warned the school owner before the collapse. Mohammad Zaman, 36, lost his nephews Abdul, nine, and Abuzar, 10. He said he had complained to the owner that rainwater repeatedly seeped into classrooms, and he warned that the building’s condition could lead to a tragedy.
Abuzar’s sister, Samiya, a nursery student, survived. She had gone outside to buy sweets.
Ambulances Carried the Bodies Home
Mosque loudspeakers urged residents to gather for mass funeral prayers at the nearby Rehman Baba cemetery. Residents said most of the children who died came from Dir Colony, the neighborhood of the school. Families were unsure which bereaved household to visit first. Ambulances carried the children’s bodies from the hospital back to their homes as mourners wept.
One family lost five children: Mubasshir Naeem and Sanan Asad, both 11; Amir Mangal and Haleema Haleem, both seven; and Romaisa Ismail, eight. Their uncle, Tausif Uddin, said on Friday, Oct. 16: “We pulled the children out of the debris with our hands. They died in pain.” He also said: “There is silence all around.”
Zakir Ullah lost both sons, Abu Bakr and Mohammad, who were in the same classroom. He called the building weak and demanded punishment for any officials who authorized its use as a school. “How could I have known this would take both my sons away from me?” he said.
Police Call Building Structurally Weak
Peshawar police chief Saeed Ahmed said officers arrested the school owner, Mohammad Khan. Ahmed described the three-story building as structurally weak. Police said the roof slab was built using choka, thin, flat clay tiles or custom-tapered bricks, and that the structure appeared overloaded.
Khan blamed rainfall for weakening one of the roofs after his arrest, police said. Police cautioned that the investigation is still underway. Ahmed said a case will be registered and investigators will determine which building regulations were violated. Police said the building remains in danger of further collapse and that people were moved out immediately.
Province Orders Audits in Days
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Gov. Faisal Karim Kundi visited the school, sought a report on the cause and directed the best possible care for the injured children. Every government and private educational institution in the province must undergo a structural safety audit under Kundi’s orders, with findings due within one week. Investigators have four days to finish the inquiry into the collapse, he said. Kundi said no school audit had been carried out because of negligence by the previous provincial government.
The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa education department was ordered to set up district committees to inspect all private school buildings in the province, both owned and rented. The inspections cover roofs, ceilings, walls, columns, beams, foundations and staircases. The committees must classify each building as safe, in need of repairs, or potentially unsafe, and submit findings and recommendations within three days. Syed Aamir Abdullah, a member of the provincial advisory council for education, directed officials to review safety rules at institutions province-wide.
Provincial government spokeswoman Samar Haroon Bilour praised the speed of the rescue response.
A fact-finding committee was also set up by the provincial Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, which told the panel to report urgently. Chairing it is Javed Iqbal, managing director of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Private Schools Regulatory Authority, with deputy secretary for primary education Muhammad Farooq serving as a member. The panel will nominate its third member and recommend measures to prevent similar disasters.
President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif sent condolences from Islamabad, called for a comprehensive investigation and said school buildings must meet safety standards. “The entire nation shares the grief of the affected families in this hour of sorrow,” Zardari said.
Pakistan sees building collapses often, because construction standards are poorly enforced there. Many structures rely on substandard materials, and builders routinely ignore safety rules to cut costs. A tutoring center under construction in Lahore lost its roof in July, and 14 schoolchildren were killed. Police attributed that collapse to poor construction quality and the collapse of an unfinished upper floor.
