The roof of a tutoring centre collapsed, killing at least 14 children and injuring five in the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore on Tuesday, officials said.
“A roof collapse in Basti Eid Gah, Kahna Nau, has claimed the lives of 14 children, while five others were injured,” an Edhi ambulance service spokesperson said, referring to an area to the south of Pakistan’s second-largest city.
The city’s top civilian official, Commissioner Marryam Khan, confirmed the death toll and said a teacher had also been injured.
Broadcaster Geo News aired images of uniformed rescuers and civilians using spades and their hands to dig through dirt and rubble in the partially collapsed building.
Authorities promised an investigation and provincial police said on X that two people had been taken into custody over the disaster.
Medical sources said the children killed in the collapse were aged between around four and 12.
The injured children were receiving treatment in hospital, according to Edhi.
Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif expressed his “grief over the loss of precious lives in the collapse of a tuition centre roof in Lahore’s Kahna area”.
Sharif “prayed for the speedy recovery of the injured and directed the authorities to provide them with every possible medical assistance”, according to a statement released by his office.
– Investigation underway –
Police said they were collecting evidence at the scene of the collapse and posted video of officers speaking with rescuers wearing hardhats at the building, which was nestled in a tightly packed residential area.
Khan, Lahore’s commissioner, said in a statement that “those responsible for the incident will be found through a transparent, unbiased and immediate investigation”.
Roof and building collapses are common across Pakistan, mainly because of poor safety standards and shoddy construction materials in the South Asian country of more than 240 million people.
Last July, 27 people were killed and 10 injured when a five-storey building collapsed in the impoverished area of Lyari in the southern city of Karachi.
