At least 32 pupils and a female teacher were k!lled after a private school roof collapsed in Pakistan on Thursday
A further 45 people suffered major and minor injuries in the collapse in the northwestern city of Peshawar, according to officials.
Twelve girls were among the de.ad. Most of the children k!lled or injured were aged 13 or younger.
Three children were in a critical condition with head injuries, Lady Reading Hospital spokesperson Mohammad Asim said.
Most of the 20 injured brought to that hospital had been treated and sent home, he added.
A rescue official said the roof of an upper floor collapsed onto students in classrooms below, crumpling two storeys of the building.
The hospital declared an emergency as medical staff treated the wounded.
The collapse happened at 8.48am local time at the privately run Al-Khair Education center. The rescue operation lasted four to five hours, according to Arif Khattak, regional director of the Rescue Department.
Several children were initially 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 footage showed rescuers clawing through debris with their bare hands and carrying bloodied children to waiting ambulances as relatives and residents crowded the narrow alley outside.
‘We have so far taken out at least 45 children from the rubble,’ district emergency officer Iftikhar Khan said.
Injured teacher Mahwish Zaman said the three-storey school had an estimated 1,200 students enrolled in nursery through fifth grade.
Speaking from her hospital bed, she told the Associated Press she was in her classroom when the roof collapsed and felt as if the sky had fallen. She regained consciousness in hospital.
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