At least 33 pupils and a teacher have been killed after a school roof collapsed in the north-western Pakistani city of Peshawar, according to hospital officials.

More than a dozen others are injured, with some in a critical condition.

Emergency services were called to the private Al-Khair school in Dir Colony at 08:48 (03:48 GMT) on Thursday after lessons had begun, rescue official Bilal Faizi told the BBC.

The roof of an upper-floor classroom had collapsed, he said, causing ceilings below to cave in and trap children beneath the debris.

Announcing the arrest of the school's owner, police chief Mian Saeed promised a thorough inquiry into "whether there were any violations of building codes".

Warning: This article contains distressing details

An English teacher from a nearby school said he immediately rushed to the site with other local residents when they heard sirens and the sound of ambulances.

Together, they pulled more than 20 children from the rubble, he said.

"I personally pulled out six children with my own hands. Most of them were alive and talking. But later it was found that they had passed away."

"There was a lot of blood," he said. "One child said he was in a lot of pain. His tongue had dried up in his mouth, [and he was] asking for water."

Sohail, another local resident, said he and others tried to remove children from under the rubble "using shovels".

Reuters

The school building had been constructed on a temporary basis, according to emergency official Arif Khattak.

Earlier reports suggested the destroyed classrooms were in a two-storey part of the building, but Peshawar police chief Mian Saeed later confirmed that classrooms on three floors had been brought down.

There were about 30 pupils in the top class, 40 in the middle and 45 on the ground floor, he said.

It appears that when the roof of the top-floor classroom collapsed, the falling rubble crashed through classrooms below, bringing their ceilings down too.

Saeed said the entire structure, which had "substandard" roof slabs, was "overloaded" and beyond the limit of how much weight it could bear.

The school is on a very narrow street, meaning it was difficult for rescue workers to reach the site and transport the injured to hospitals.

Peshawar's Lady Reading Hospital reported the deaths of 32 children and a teacher while Naseerullah Khan Babar Memorial Hospital reported one child dead.

The police chief said the building was still "extremely dangerous" and urged people to move away.

The Governor of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Faisal Karim Kundi, has ordered a safety audit of all schools in the province to "identify potential risks and ensure that immediate corrective measures are taken wherever necessary".

"We cannot allow the safety of our children to be compromised," he said.

Furious family members of deceased pupils accused the school of ignoring safety concerns. "Make an example of them, a lesson for all," Mohammad Zaman, a man who lost two nephews in the disaster, told Reuters news agency.

 

SOURCE/AUTHOR : BBC NEWS/Bilal Ahmed and Azizullah Khan,BBC Urdu, Peshawar and Phelan Chatterjee