ISLAMABAD: At least 29 people, among them 27 children, were killed while over a dozen others were injured on Thursday when the roof of a private school collapsed in Pakistan’s northwestern city of Peshawar, a hospital spokesperson said.

The latest incident, which took place at Peshawar’s Dir Colony, has renewed concerns about the safety of private educational institutions in Pakistan, although it was not immediately clear what caused the roof to collapse or whether the school had undergone structural safety inspections.

Building collapses have repeatedly caused mass casualties in Pakistan, where aging structures, unauthorized construction and inadequate enforcement of building regulations pose serious risks, particularly in densely populated urban areas.

“Twenty-nine have so far been killed and over a dozen injured have been shifted to LRH following the Dir Colony incident,” Muhammad Asim, a spokesperson at the Lady Reading Hospital (LRH) said in a statement. “Two female teachers are among those killed.”

The identities and ages of those killed were not immediately available. Authorities had yet to announce the cause of the collapse or provide details of any investigation.

A Rescue 1122 official said the emergency response service received a call around 8:48 a.m. about the roof collapse. When rescue officials arrived at the scene, he said they found that two roofs had collapsed over one another.

The official said Rescue 1122 was taking part in a search and rescue operation at the site with 16 ambulances, two disaster vehicles and over 60 personnel.

Peshawar Capital City Police Officer Dr. Mian Saeed said police had taken the owner of the school into custody. He said the private school was built on a three-story building, with over 110 seminary students studying on all three floors of the institute.

“This [institute] was being run by a welfare trust by the name of Al-Khair,” Dr. Saeed told reporters. “We have taken the owner into custody for now.”

The police official said over 20 children have been killed in the roof collapse, while 47 others have been injured.

“We will register a first information report against the owners,” Dr. Saeed said. “To sit children of three classes in such a congested alley and in such a fragile building, I believe there has been a huge negligence.”

When asked about the reason for the building’s collapse, the police official said authorities will carry out a “proper inquiry” to determine the cause.

In June, 14 children were killed when the roof of a private tuition center collapsed in Lahore’s Kahna area while classes were underway, one of the deadliest recent incidents involving an educational facility in Pakistan.

The tuition center was reportedly operating without registration in an aging residential building. Police subsequently registered a case against the owners and a contractor over the deaths.

The Lahore tragedy prompted calls for tighter oversight of private educational facilities, particularly those operating in residential buildings without adequate safety checks.

In July 2025, a five-story residential building collapsed in Karachi’s Lyari neighborhood, killing 27 people and injuring several others, highlighting the wider dangers posed by unsafe buildings in Pakistan.