Roof collapse kills at least 27 pupils and teacher at Peshawar Al Khair school

At least 27 pupils and one teacher were killed when the roof of the privately run Al Khair Education Centre in Peshawar collapsed during classes, The National reported.

Authorities said around 110 pupils were inside the classrooms when the roof gave way; Peshawar police chief Mian Saeed told reporters only 47 of those children had been rescued at the time of The National’s account. District emergency officer Iftikhar Khan said rescue teams had removed at least 45 children. Hospital staff described receiving most of the fatalities and wounded.

Lady Reading Hospital spokesperson Mohammad Asim said at least 20 injured people and most of those killed had been taken to the hospital. The National did not provide an updated overall count of people still trapped or of bodies recovered beyond the figures given by police and emergency officials. Local officials offered an explanation for the collapse.

Mian Saeed described the building as having a weak structure and said excessive rooftop construction added weight that triggered the failure, and The National carried his remarks as the immediate cause cited by police. The account does not include an independent engineering assessment or a more detailed structural survey.

The scale of reported casualties varies in other headlines: BBC, CNN and Sky News ran headlines saying at least 28 children were killed, while the Associated Press headline cited a lower figure of at least 10 children killed and reported more than two dozen injured.

Those headline counts differ from The National’s toll of 27 pupils plus one teacher; The National’s text is the basis for the detailed casualty and rescue numbers in this brief. Rescue operations, as described by The National, were underway with emergency services extracting tens of children from the rubble and carrying the injured to Lady Reading Hospital.

The article names Iftikhar Khan and Mian Saeed as the senior local officials speaking about rescues and the structural cause; it does not quote parents, school owners or independent witnesses beyond those official statements. The reporting focuses on immediate rescue figures and the police account of structural weakness caused by rooftop construction.

The National’s coverage does not include a timeline for completing rescues, an independent casualty verification, or details about the school’s construction permits or prior inspections.