PESHAWAR: At least 35 people, including 34 children and a female teacher, were killed when the roof of a private school collapsed in Pakistan’s northwestern city of Peshawar on Thursday, officials said, as authorities launched an investigation and announced compensation for the victims’ families.

The collapse at the privately run Al-Khair Education Center in the densely populated Dir Colony neighborhood left at least 45 children injured, according to Reuters, with rescue workers struggling for hours to retrieve victims from the rubble in the narrow streets surrounding the school.

Funeral prayers for the victims were held later on Thursday, attended by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Governor Faisal Karim Kundi, police officials, grieving relatives and local residents. Kundi later visited the site of the collapse and said an inquiry team had been formed to investigate the incident and determine responsibility.

“Every citizen is saddened by the Dir Colony school incident. The loss of precious human lives is an irreparable tragedy,” Kundi said, according to an official statement.

“Whoever is found responsible for the incident will face action,” he added, saying authorities would first establish who had issued the school a no-objection certificate (NOC).

The governor announced compensation of Rs1 million ($3,600) for each family of those killed and Rs200,000 ($720) for each injured person.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif also telephoned Kundi to express sorrow over the deaths and directed authorities to provide the best possible medical treatment to the injured and all necessary assistance to affected families, according to a statement from the PM office.

Sharif sought a comprehensive report on the incident and instructed officials to investigate all aspects of the collapse and take legal action against those responsible.

The governor informed the prime minister that the school’s owner had been arrested and an investigation was underway.

Peshawar Capital City Police Officer Dr. Mian Saeed said more than 110 students were attending classes in the three-story building when the roof collapsed at around 8:48 a.m.

“It was a weak building structure,” Saeed told Reuters. “Its roof was overloaded with construction on a weak structure, which caused the collapse.”

Earlier, Saeed accused those responsible for the premises of negligence.

“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,” he said.

A Rescue 1122 official said emergency services had deployed 16 ambulances, two disaster response vehicles and more than 60 personnel to search the debris and transport casualties to hospitals.

Rescue officials said the operation lasted four to five hours, with workers pulling children from beneath the collapsed structure as parents and relatives gathered outside.

Most of the victims were younger than 13 and came from low-income families.

Distraught relatives demanded accountability, accusing the school administration of ignoring concerns about the building’s condition.

“Make an example of them, a lesson for all, so that no one dares open a school just to make money without providing facilities,” Mohammad Zaman, who lost two nephews in the collapse, told Reuters.

The tragedy has renewed concerns about the safety of private educational institutions in Pakistan, where poorly maintained buildings and inadequate enforcement of safety regulations have contributed to deadly collapses, including one that killed 14 children in Lahore in June.

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

-With inputs from Reuters.