Families of 34 children killed in Pakistan school roof collapse demand justice

The families of children killed in a roof collapse at a school in northwest Pakistan called for "justice" on Friday, a day after more than 30 pupils and a teacher were crushed to death.

A woman teacher and 32 students, mostly younger than 14, died in the building collapse in the city of Peshawar on Thursday morning.

"The parents of all these children must receive justice," tailor Muhammad Wahab, who lost his 11-year-old nephew Hammad in the accident, told the AFP news agency on Friday.

"I appeal to our rulers," he said, adding that Hammad had been "doing well in school" before the tragedy.

Dozens of people gathered outside the school on Friday to mourn the children who were killed in the collapse, which officials blamed on dilapidated infrastructure.

One grief-stricken father showed AFP a picture on his mobile phone of his young daughter, dressed in red and gold, who lost her life.

Another parent, Asadullah, said he lost a son, nephew and three other close relatives in the tragedy.

"The children were good students and often achieved top positions in their classes," he told AFP. "They happily went to school every day."

Residents and rescuers described chaotic scenes in the aftermath of Thursday's collapse, as people scrambled to pull children out from under the rubble.

A man named Sohail told AFP that "everyone began screaming in panic" when his niece, who had escaped the building, arrived home to tell them it had collapsed.

"When I arrived at the scene, I saw around 10 to 15 children trapped beneath the rubble, with debris piled up to their necks. We quickly pulled them out," he said.

School owner detained

Images released by emergency services showed rescue workers in high-visibility vests scrambling to move debris, rubble and dirt.

A senior official in Peshawar told AFP that initial reports suggested the roof collapse was due to "weak infrastructure".

"The school owner has been detained," the official said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to talk to media.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif expressed "deep sorrow and grief over the loss of precious lives" in an X post.

President Asif Ali Zardari described the roof collapse as a "heartbreaking tragedy".

Building collapses are common in Pakistan, largely due to poor safety standards and substandard construction materials in the South Asian nation of more than 240 million people.

In June, more than a dozen children were killed when a roof collapsed at a tutoring centre in the eastern city of Lahore.

In 2025, 27 people were killed and 10 injured when a five-storey building collapsed in the impoverished Lyari area of the southern city of Karachi.