Peshawar Collapse

Peshawar, Pakistan, lost at least 34 children and a teacher Thursday when a school roof collapsed, authorities said. More than 50 others were hurt.

Twelve girls and a female teacher died at Al-Khair school, a private school in a crowded, low-income neighborhood, the Associated Press and the Guardian reported. The roofs of two classrooms gave way while second and third graders sat inside with their teachers, emergency services spokesman Bilal Faizi told the AP. Nearly 100 rescuers joined the search. Faizi credited the fast evacuation with saving at least 40 lives. Three children remained in critical condition with head injuries, a Lady Reading Hospital spokesman told the Guardian.

The roof gave way at 8:48 a.m. local time. The search for survivors ran four to five hours, the Guardian reported, citing regional emergency services director Arif Khattak. Peshawar's police chief, named as Saeed Ahmed by the AP and Mian Saeed by the Guardian, said the building was structurally weak and its roof had been overloaded by added construction. Police arrested the school's owner, who later blamed this week's rain for weakening the roof, the AP reported. The investigation continued, police said.

Building collapses are common in Pakistan, where construction codes are often poorly enforced, the AP reported. Pakistan spends less than 1% of its roughly $450 billion economy on education, the Guardian noted, pushing many families toward low-cost private schools that often operate in poorly maintained rented buildings. A roof collapse at a Lahore tutoring center killed 14 children in June, according to the Guardian.

President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif each issued statements mourning the dead, NPR reported. "The entire nation shares the grief of the affected families in this hour of sorrow," Zardari said. He called for a full investigation and said school buildings need to meet safety standards. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Gov. Faisal Karim Kundi ordered officials to give the injured children the best available care, NPR reported. A provincial committee was formed to examine what caused the collapse.

Mahwish Zaman was teaching when the roof gave way above her. It felt, she told the AP, as if the sky had fallen. She woke up in the hospital.