The roof of Al-Khair Education Center collapsed on Thursday morning while classes were underway in Peshawar’s Dir Colony, killing at least 29 people and injuring more than 50 others, according to hospital officials and provincial authorities. Lady Reading Hospital spokesman Mohammad Asim said the dead included 27 students and two teachers, and that all of the children killed or hurt were 13 or younger.
Rescue teams worked through the debris for hours as families gathered outside the three-storey building, which housed both schoolrooms and madrassa instruction. Police said roughly 110 to 120 children were inside when the structure failed. Emergency officials said dozens of pupils had been pulled from the wreckage, but authorities warned that the toll could rise as search operations continued.
Hospital emergency and arrests
Lady Reading Hospital declared an emergency to handle the influx of wounded, with Asim telling the BBC that 19 people remained hospitalized and that a handful were in critical condition. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif expressed grief over the deaths in a statement and directed authorities to intensify rescue work and provide medical care.
Peshawar police arrested the school owner, with Capital City Police Officer Dr. Mian Saeed describing the case as one of “gross negligence,” according to local reports. Deputy Commissioner Afaq Wazir ordered an inquiry, and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s education secretary, Inayatullah Waseem, gave the Private Schools Regulatory Authority until the following day to submit a report on whether the campus was properly registered and maintained.
Structural questions
Early accounts from investigators described a building that may have been carrying loads beyond its capacity. Reports cited brick lintels, a roof assembled from mud, girders and other materials, and questions about whether the structure met standards for a three-storey educational facility. Officials stressed that the precise cause had not been independently established and that engineers would need to determine whether defects, overloading, poor construction or maintenance failures—or a combination—led to the collapse.
The tragedy lands at a moment of renewed scrutiny of Pakistan’s private school sector, which educates millions of children but varies widely in oversight. Opposition lawmakers in the province have called for spot inspections of similar campuses, while parents in Dir Colony demanded answers about how a building that appeared crowded on an ordinary school day was allowed to operate without visible reinforcement work.
What happens next
Police said they were identifying the principal and teaching staff and expected to register a formal case. Forensic teams were collecting material from the site for structural analysis. Provincial leaders promised compensation for bereaved families, though amounts and timelines were not immediately detailed.
For Peshawar, a city that has weathered militant violence and displacement for years, Thursday’s disaster struck a different nerve: a mundane morning school run that ended in a crush of concrete and dust. Rescue officials said operations would continue until they were confident no one remained trapped, even as hospital staff braced for more admissions from the injured still being triaged across the city.