Lucy Gilder
Live reporter

Image source, Reuters

At least 34 people, including 33 students and a teacher, have died after parts of a school collapsed in Peshawar, Pakistan.

A hospital spokesperson has reported at least 19 others are injured, including five in a critical condition.

Images from the scene show the scale of the collapse and one eye witness described seeing children trapped under the rubble "with debris piled up to their necks".

A police official said that the school, located in a very narrow street, had substandard roof slabs and the entire structure was "overloaded".

Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has said there will be a "thorough investigation" into the deaths, while the owner of the school has been arrested.

Our live coverage of the incident is ending soon but you can read more about the story here.

Image source, Getty Images

The governor of the Peshawar province - where the roof collapse took place - has spoken with Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif today.

Sharing details of the call on Facebook, Governor Faisal Karim Kundi says the PM "conveyed his condolences and sympathy" to the families and "directed that the best possible medical care be provided to those injured".

"The Prime Minister directed that all aspects of the incident be examined and that action be taken against those responsible, in accordance with the law," the update says.

The All Pakistan Private Schools' Federation has released a statement expressing "deep grief" following the roof collapse in Peshawar, while also demanding "strict and exemplary action" against those responsible.

"This is not merely the collapse of a building; it is a collapse - a failure - of responsibility," it says in a statement shared on Facebook.

The group's president Kashif Mirza calls for action against the school's owner and "the relevant authorities whose negligence allowed a dilapidated and overcrowded building to continue operating as a school".

He says tragedies will continue to occur unless people are held accountable.

The federation has also proposed an "emergency safety framework" for schools, including a ban on overloading classrooms and restrictions on schools in cramped or hazardous structures.

Image source, AFP

This post contains details some readers may find distressing.

One eyewitness says his young niece narrowly escaped because she had left the school to buy a pencil.

In an interview with AFP news agency Sohail says his niece was on her way back inside the building when it started to fall in. "She stepped on to the stairs and the roof collapsed," he said.

She managed to get outside and told him what had just happened. When the news reached the family home "everyone began screaming in panic", he said.

As Sohail arrived at the school he saw between 10 and 15 children trapped under the rubble "with debris piled up to their necks".

"We quickly pulled them out. There were huge chunks of debris everywhere."

After the children had been rescued, emergency teams arrived at the scene and Sohail says he and others helped put the children into rescue vehicles.

Image source, Reuters

Authorities from the north-western province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa have urged people to avoid overcrowding hospitals following the roof collapse at al-Khair school in Peshawar.

The region's information department has also asked members of the public to keep roads clear for ambulances and patients.

As a reminder, at least 34 people - mostly children under 13 - were killed after parts of the school building collapsed. Police have said "gross negligence" was to blame for the incident.

Katie Williams
Live reporter

Image source, EPA

At least 34 people have died after a school roof collapsed in Pakistan's city of Peshawar - the majority school children.

A hospital spokesperson says at least 19 others are injured, some critically, and many of the children have sustained head injuries.

Police say "gross negligence" is behind the collapse, adding that they will "conduct a thorough inquiry". The owner of the school has been arrested.

"There should be no compromise whatsoever on the safety of children in educational institutions," Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has said.

Images show the aftermath of the collapse, with a hole where the roof used to be.

One local man has described trying to pull children from the rubble "using shovels". Our reporter at the scene says the school is in a narrow street which made it difficult for rescuers to reach the site.

The rescue operation took place over four to five hours, according to emergency services, and has now finished.

Image source, EPA/ Shutterstock

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif says there will be a "thorough investigation" into the deaths of at least 34 people after a roof collapsed in a school in Peshawar this morning.

"My heart is with the families grieving the loss of their children and a teacher in the tragic roof collapse at a school in Peshawar. No parent should have to endure such pain," he added in a social media post.

Image source, EPA

Aseefa B Zardari - Pakistan's first lady and the daughter of President Asif Ali Zardari - says she is "heartbroken" at the loss of young lives following this morning's tragedy.

Sending condolences to bereaved families and prayers to the injured, she called for accountability.

"No parent should have to send their child to school fearing for their safety," she writes on X.

Separately the chairman of Pakistan's social democratic Pakistan People's Party Bilawal Bhutto Zardari writes: "The mere thought of it makes my heart tremble - that those parents who lovingly sent their children off to school this morning instead received the news of their deaths.

"No words can express the silence that has descended upon those homes or the grief of the parents."

Carrie Davies
BBC Pakistan correspondent

While Pakistan’s official statistics estimate that 46.5% of students in the country are in private schools, the World Bank has estimated that it’s higher, at around 49% or 21.7 million children.

Why so many?

Mariam Chughtai, former director of the National Curriculum Council, says that parents often think the education received at government schools is not good enough.

"Too many function as daytime holding spaces rather than places of education," she says.

"Parents know this. For a poor family, a child’s years in a public school feel like lost time and lost future earnings. So they work two or three jobs to pay the fee of a low-fee private school."

But she says the education at these schools is not guaranteed to be better and there’s not enough safety checks.

"Private schools must register, but inspection of teaching quality or building safety is weak and rarely enforced. Many low-fee schools run in converted houses, with extra floors added as enrolment grows."

"Until child safety is treated as non-negotiable, and not as a line item to profit from, we will keep mourning tragedies like this one,” she says.

Image source, EPA/ Shutterstock

Peshawar police official Mian Saeed has been giving more details about the collapsed school building.

He told journalists that the three-storey structure in a very narrow street had roof slabs that were substandard.

There were three affected classrooms, one on each floor, accommodating around 110 students with 30 in the top class, 40 in the middle and 45 on the ground floor.

Saeed said the entire structure was "overloaded" and there was a limit to how much weight the concrete slab, or lintel, could bear.

"We are still urging people to move away, as the building is extremely dangerous and there is a risk of further collapse. This is a case of gross negligence," he added.

"We will examine whether there were any violations of building codes; we intend to conduct a thorough inquiry and gather all the facts."

Earlier, police confirmed the owner of Al-Khair school had been arrested.

The Peshawar school building "couldn't bear the weight of the students and it collapsed", a senior police official has told the BBC.

Farhan Ahmed, senior superintendent of police operations in Peshawar, said the Al-Khair school in Dir Colony was in a "very dilapidated condition".

He says that around 300 students were believed to be studying at the school, with around 100 students inside three classrooms affected by the collapse.

Police will look into whether the building had previously been inspected, Ahmed said.

Azizullah Khan
BBC Urdu

Image source, Getty Images

This post contains details some readers may find distressing

A teacher has told the BBC he pulled six children from underneath the rubble of a roof collapse at Al-Khair school as he helped emergency services at the scene.

The English teacher at a nearby government college told me that he immediately went to the site with other local residents when he heard sirens and the sound of ambulances.

He said they pulled more than 20 children out of the rubble...

"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."

• You can follow additional coverage on BBC Urdu

The most recent official figures say at least 34 people have died following the roof collapse at Al-Khair school earlier this morning.

Lady Reading Hospital reported 33 people dead - including 32 children and a teacher - and Naseerullah Khan Babar Memorial Hospital reported one child dead.

Image source, EPA

• Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif expressed grief and directed authorities to provide affected families with medical assistance
• "There should be no compromise whatsoever on the safety of children in educational institutions," Sharif says, adding that the relevant authorities "must conduct a transparent investigation into the incident" to ensure such tragedies are not repeated
• Deputy PM Ishaq Dar says ensuring the "safety and protection of our children must remain paramount" and measures must be taken to strengthen safety standards in schools
• Jahanara Manzoor Wattoo of the Punjab Social Protection Authority called for a "thorough safety audit of all schools across the province", adding that the "safety of our children is non-negotiable"
• Senator Abid Sher Ali says this "extremely painful tragedy... has plunged the entire nation into mourning"

The school where the roof collapsed killing at least 28 is in Peshawar, the capital of Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

Our map highlights its location in Dir Colony.

The injured - many of whom are children with head injuries - have been receiving treatment at the Lady Reading Hospital a few kilometres away.

Image source, Reuters

A school roof collapse in Pakistan's city of Peshawar has killed at least 28, the majority of whom are children under the age of 13.

• A rescue official in the area says the control centre received a call at around 08:48 local time (04:48 BST), reporting the roof collapse
• Rescuers later find the roof of one section of the building has collapsed on to another, trapping children in the affected classroom under the debris
• By around 09:30, residents have started rushing to the scene and are attempting to pull children out "using shovels", a local man tells the BBC
• Hospital updates start trickling out, with early reports saying at least 18 pupils and one teacher have been killed
• Shortly before 12:36, a hospital spokesperson tells the BBC the death toll has risen to 28 people, including 27 students and one teacher. A rescue official has since put the death toll at 29
• As we reported in our previous post, police have since confirmed the owner of the school has been arrested. Preliminary investigations suggest the building was structurally weak
• The emergency services regional director says rescue operations have now been completed, having taken place over a period of "four to five hours"

Bilal Ahmed
Reporting from Peshawar

Authorities in Peshawar say rescue operations have been completed following the collapse of a school building, although debris remains at the site.

Arif Khattak, regional director of Rescue 1122, tells the BBC: "Initially, 16 bodies were recovered after the building collapsed.

"The operation continued for four to five hours, and by the time it was completed, 29 bodies had been recovered. Among them was a female teacher," he says.

He adds that upon arriving at the scene, he found the school was in an unstructured building, meaning it had been constructed on a temporary basis.

Bilal Ahmed
Reporting from Peshawar

The Capital City Police Officer (CCPO) Peshawar confirms the owner of the school - Khair Education System - has been arrested.

A statement released by the CCPO says that the private school in Peshawar's Dir Colony was being run as an educational trust.

According to preliminary investigations, the building was structurally weak, which led to the collapse.