In Pakistan, 34 children and a teacher were killed when the roof of a private school collapsed in Peshawar today.
City Police chief Mian Saeed said, the incident occurred in Dir Colony in the congested inner city area.
Thirty students were present in classrooms on the upper floor of the Al-Khair School when the roof collapsed. Police said, the roof of the three-storey building was poorly constructed.
As panicked parents and relatives thronged the site of the privately run al-Khair school to search for their loved ones, rescue workers spent hours pulling children from the rubble.
Television footage showed rescuers clawing through debris with their bare hands and carrying bloodied children to waiting ambulances as people crowded the alley where the school stood.
The roof of a higher floor collapsed on to classrooms below, crumpling two storeys of the building, a rescue official said. “The fatalities include 12 girl students and a female teacher,” said the Lady Reading hospital spokesperson, Mohammad Asim.
Three children remained in critical condition with head injuries, while most of the injured taken to the hospital had been treated and discharged, he added.