School roof collapse in Pakistan kills at least 35 and injures more than 50

PESHAWAR, Pakistan — The roof of a private school collapsed in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar on Thursday, killing at least 34 children and a teacher and injuring more than 50 other people in the deadliest building collapse ever in the country, authorities and a hospital official said. The children killed or injured at Al-Khair school were between 6 and 12 years old, while the oldest was 14, Lady Reading Hospital spokesperson Mohammad Asim said. Some of the injured were in critical condition, he said. The hospital declared an emergency as medical staff treated the wounded. Hours after the collapse in Peshawar, the capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, emergency services spokesperson Bilal Faizi said that everyone trapped beneath the rubble had been pulled out and crews had cleared debris. He told The Associated Press that the roofs of two classrooms collapsed when second- and third-grade children were in them with their teachers. Faizi said ambulances and disaster management personnel arrived from a nearby facility within five minutes of being alerted. Nearly 100 rescuer