Dozens of students killed alongside teacher as school roof collapses in Pakistan

Twenty-seven pupils and a female teacher were killed after a private school roof collapsed in Pakistan on Thursday.

More than three dozen others were injured in the collapse in the northwestern city of Peshawar, with six believed to be in a critical condition, according to hospital officials.

All the children killed or injured were aged 13 or younger, a spokesman for the city's Lady Reading Hospital said. 

A rescue official said the roof of a higher floor collapsed on the roof of the first floor of the building which in turn collapsed on students in their classrooms.

The hospital declared an emergency as medical staff treated the wounded.

Several children remained trapped beneath the rubble as rescuers removed debris to reach them, emergency services spokesman Bilal Faizi said.

Residents were among the first to reach the school in a congested neighbourhood in central Peshawar, witnesses said. Rescue workers arrived within minutes of being alerted.

Television visuals showed ambulances rushing to the scene and rescue workers retrieving bloodied students from the rubble.

'We have so far taken out at least 45 children from the rubble,' district emergency officer Iftikhar Khan said.

There were reports that more children remained trapped beneath the debris, he added.

A resident, Mohammad Khan, said rescuers carefully removed debris, trying to reach children and staff feared trapped beneath the collapsed roof. 

Outside the school and at the state-run Lady Reading Hospital, anguished parents sought information about their children, unsure whether they had survived.

The cause of the collapse was under investigation. Peshawar police chief Saeed Ahmed said that the school's owner had been arrested. 

He said that the building was structurally weak.

Peshawar police chief Mian Saeed said he feared the death toll could rise as just 47 of the 110 students in three classrooms at the time had been rescued.

'It was a weak building structure,' Saeed added. 'Its roof was overweight with construction on a weak structure that caused the collapse.'

There was no immediate comment from school officials.

In July, a roof collapsed at a tutoring center under construction in Lahore, killing four schoolchildren.

Building collapses are common in Pakistan, where construction standards are often poorly enforced. 

Many structures are built with substandard materials, and safety regulations are frequently ignored to reduce costs.

This is a breaking news story, more to follow.