The roof of a private school collapsed in Peshawar, the capital of Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, on the morning of 15 October 2026, killing at least 28 people. Hospital officials said the dead include 27 students and a female teacher, while 19 others were being treated for injuries, five of them in critical condition. Earlier counts had been lower, and the toll rose through the day as bodies were recovered. The building, identified as Al Khair School in the Afridi Abad area, caved in while students were inside their classrooms.
A first-floor section came down on the ground-floor rooms below, trapping children under the rubble. Rescue 1122 teams said around 40 people had been pulled out and that several more were feared trapped as operations continued. A parent who rushed to the scene said he pulled three young girls to safety, and described his son escaping only because he had stepped out to drink water. An emergency was declared at Lady Reading Hospital, and police arranged a green corridor for ambulances.
The provincial Governor ordered a report and an inquiry into the cause, and President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif expressed grief and called for stronger safety standards. Building and roof collapses are common in Pakistan and are often linked to weak construction and poor oversight. Similar accidents earlier in 2026 killed 14 children at a Lahore tuition centre and four at a Dera Ghazi Khan school. The latest disaster is likely to raise fresh questions about inspection of private school buildings.