Twenty-eight children and a teacher were killed and dozens injured when the roof of a school in northern Pakistan collapsed on Thursday morning, authorities said.
Heavy rainfall had caused the roof of the two-story building in the city of Peshawar to collapse, Bilal Ahmed of the local rescue services told CNN. Some children were still trapped in the rubble and rescuers were working to reach them, he said.
Forty-seven children were injured, Asim Khan, spokesperson for the Lady Reading Hospital in Peshawar, told CNN. Video from the scene obtained by CNN showed ambulances rushing through narrow streets and crowds gathered outside the school building.
Local residents were among the first people to reach the scene, and rescue workers arrived within minutes, The Associated Press reported citing eyewitnesses.
Building collapses are a common problem in Pakistan. Construction standards in the country are often poorly enforced, and many structures are built with substandard materials.
The collapse comes just weeks after a fire tore through a hospital in the capital Islamabad, killing at least 14 newborns and sparking widespread anger and multiple arrests.
The fire was confined to a third-floor nursery but officials said it spread so quickly that staff were able to rescue only one baby from among the 15 being cared for there.
An inquiry found that the nursery had no fire alarm or sprinkler system and that the hospital lacked detailed procedures and training for responding to fires and other emergencies.
In July, a roof collapse at a tutoring center under construction in Pakistan’s eastern city of Lahore killed at least 14 schoolchildren, police and rescue officials said at the time.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
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