Dozens of children were crushed when their classroom roof caved in during a school morning in Pakistan, and grieving families say they had warned it could happen.
At least 35 people — 34 children and a teacher — were killed when the roof of a private school in Peshawar, Pakistan, collapsed on Thursday, Oct. 15, 2026.
More than 50 others were injured at the Al-Khair school in northwestern Pakistan. Authorities and a hospital official called it the deadliest incident of its kind in the country. Relatives of children killed in the collapse said they had warned the school’s owner about the building before it fell.
Mohammad Zaman, 36, lost two nephews in the collapse. He and other relatives complained that rainwater seeped repeatedly into the classrooms, and he warned that the condition could lead to a tragedy.
His nephews were Abdul, nine, a second grader, and Abuzar, 10, a third grader. Abuzar’s sister Samiya, a nursery student, survived. She was outside buying sweets.
Owner Arrested as Police Blame a Weak Roof
Peshawar police chief Saeed Ahmed said officers arrested the school’s owner and described the three-story building as structurally weak. Police said workers built the roof slab using choka — thin, flat clay tiles or custom-tapered bricks — and that the structure appeared overloaded.
The owner, Mohammad Khan, blamed rainfall after his arrest for weakening one of the roofs, police said. Police cautioned that the investigation is still underway. Ahmed said investigators would determine which building regulations had been violated. Police registered a case on Friday, Oct. 16, against the school’s owners, shareholders and contractor under a Pakistan Penal Code section covering death caused without direct intent.
Rescue teams moved people out of the building immediately because it was in danger of further collapse, police said.
A Desperate Race Through the Rubble
The roofs of two classrooms gave way, emergency services spokesperson Bilal Faizi said. Second- and third-grade children were inside with their teachers.
Ambulances and disaster management personnel arrived from a nearby facility within five minutes of the alert, and nearly 100 rescuers eventually joined the operation. Panicked, grieving parents were already helping when the crews arrived.
Faizi credited the rapid evacuation with saving at least 40 lives. More than a dozen children had minor injuries only. Hours after the collapse, he said, rescuers had pulled everyone trapped from the rubble and cleared the debris.
Faizi said the collapsed roof was a traditional structure of mud and bricks. Some children trapped beneath it died of suffocation, he said.
Lady Reading Hospital spokesman Mohammad Asim said most of the children killed or hurt were between six and 12 years old, and that the oldest was 14. The state-run hospital declared an emergency, and several of the wounded were in critical condition, Asim said.
Neighbors Rushed In Before Help Arrived
Neighbors in the congested central Peshawar district were the first to reach the school, according to witnesses. Zahir Hussain, a resident who lives a couple of blocks away, was walking to work when he saw people running into the street. Hussain told CBS News that the first-period lesson had barely begun.
“The building was not suitable for use as a school at all,” Hussain said. He said the street outside was so narrow that it slowed the rescue teams.
Samiullah Khan, a resident, rushed to the building and helped pull out three girls. His son, a student at the school, survived. The boy had left his classroom for a drink of water.
Mosque loudspeaker announcements urged residents to mass funeral prayers at the nearby Rehman Baba cemetery. Most of the dead children came from Dir Colony, the neighborhood where the school stands, residents said.
Families were unsure which bereaved household to visit first. Ambulances carried bodies from the hospital back to homes, and mourners wept.
Mahwish Zaman, a teacher injured in the collapse, spoke from her hospital bed. She said roughly 1,200 students were enrolled, from nursery through fifth grade. Zaman said she was in her classroom at the time, that it felt as though the sky had fallen, and that she regained consciousness in the hospital.
More than 110 students were in three classrooms when the ceiling caved in, Reuters reported.
One family lost five children: 11-year-olds Mubasshir Naeem and Sanan Asad, seven-year-olds Amir Mangal and Haleema Haleem, and eight-year-old Romaisa Ismail. Tausif Uddin, their uncle, spoke to Arab News on Friday afternoon, Oct. 16. “We pulled the children out of the debris with our hands. They died in pain,” he said.
Zakir Ullah lost both of his sons, Abu Bakr and Mohammad, who were in the same classroom. He described the building as weak and demanded punishment for any officials who authorized its use as a school. “How could I have known this would take both my sons away from me?” he said.
A Province-Wide Crackdown on Unsafe Schools
The provincial Department of Elementary and Secondary Education constituted a fact-finding committee and ordered its report urgently. Javed Iqbal, managing director of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Private Schools Regulatory Authority, is chairman, and Muhammad Farooq, deputy secretary for primary education, is a member. The panel will nominate its third member and recommend measures against similar disasters.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Gov. Faisal Karim Kundi visited the school, sought a report on the cause and directed that injured children get the best possible care. He ordered a structural safety audit of every government and private educational institution in the province, with findings due within one week.
Kundi said the inquiry into the collapse would be finished within four days. He said no school audit had been carried out because of negligence by the previous provincial government.
The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provincial government ordered the education department to set up district committees and inspect all private school buildings, both owned and rented. The checklist covers roofs, ceilings, walls, columns, beams, foundations and staircases. Inspectors will classify each building as safe, needing repairs, or potentially unsafe, and findings and recommendations are due within three days.
Dr. Syed Amir Abdullah, an education adviser to a newly formed Khyber Pakhtunkhwa council, told Arab News that authorities had launched a province-wide review of school building safety.
A three-member committee submitted its report to the Peshawar commissioner on Oct. 16. It found that the Al-Khair school was registered in 2026 with 380 students and recommended canceling its registration, Dunya News reported. Authorities in neighboring Khyber district sealed five private schools found in extremely poor condition the same day.
Samar Haroon Bilour, the provincial government spokeswoman, appealed to parents in a video message on Friday, Oct. 16, for information about schools housed in structurally weak buildings. She said the government is also conducting inspections to prevent similar tragedies.
President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif sent condolences from Islamabad. Zardari said: “The entire nation shares the grief of the affected families in this hour of sorrow.” Both called for a comprehensive investigation and said school buildings must meet safety standards.
Building collapses are common in Pakistan, where construction standards are poorly enforced. Many structures rely on substandard materials, and builders routinely ignore safety rules to cut costs. In June, the roof of a tutoring center under construction in Lahore fell in, killing 14 children.
