32 Pupils and a Teacher Die in School Roof Collapse in Peshawar, Pakistan

A school roof collapsed on Thursday morning in Peshawar, a city in northwest Pakistan, killing 32 pupils, most of them under 14, and a woman teacher. On Friday, relatives of the victims demanded justice. Officials blame the disaster on dilapidated infrastructure.

Families demand answers

On Friday, dozens of people gathered outside the school to mourn the children. Tailor Muhammad Wahab, who lost his 11-year-old nephew Hammad, told the AFP news agency that the parents of all the children must receive justice. He appealed to the country's rulers and said the boy had been doing well at school.

Another parent, Asadullah, lost a son, a nephew and three other close relatives. He said the children were good students who often ranked at the top of their classes and went to school happily every day.

Rescue efforts

Residents and rescuers described chaotic scenes as people scrambled to pull children from the rubble. A man named Sohail told AFP that panic spread when his niece, who had escaped the building, came home and said it had collapsed. At the scene he saw 10 to 15 children trapped under debris up to their necks, and they were quickly pulled out.

Investigation and reaction

A senior official in Peshawar, speaking anonymously because he was not authorised to talk to media, told AFP that initial reports pointed to weak infrastructure. The school owner has been detained. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif expressed deep sorrow over the loss of lives in a post on X, and President Asif Ali Zardari called the collapse a heartbreaking tragedy.

Earlier incidents

Building collapses are common in Pakistan, largely because of poor safety standards and substandard construction materials. The country has more than 240 million people. In June, more than a dozen children died when a roof collapsed at a tutoring centre in Lahore, in the east. In 2025, 27 people were killed and 10 injured when a five-storey building collapsed in the Lyari area of Karachi.