The roof of a private school collapsed in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar on Thursday, killing at least 34 children and a teacher and injuring more than 50 other people. Authorities and a hospital official described the disaster as the deadliest incident of its kind in the country. Peshawar is the capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. The victims attended Al-Khair school. Lady Reading Hospital spokesman Mohammad Asim said the children killed or injured ranged from 6 to 12 years old, and the oldest was 14. Some of the injured remained in critical condition. The hospital declared an emergency as medical staff worked to treat the wounded. Rescuers Pull Everyone From the Rubble Hours after the collapse, emergency services spokesperson Bilal Faizi said crews had pulled out everyone trapped beneath the rubble and had cleared the debris. He told The Associated Press that the roofs of two classrooms gave way while second- and third-grade children sat inside with their teachers. The collapse struck during a normal school session and turned two ordinary classrooms into a disaster zone within moments. Faizi said ambulances and disaster management personnel arrived from a nearby facility within five minutes of the alert. Nearly 100 rescuers eventually joined the operation. Panicked, grieving parents tried to help when the crews arrived, he said. Faizi credited the rapid evacuation with saving at least 40 lives. More than a dozen children suffered only minor injuries, he said. The speed of the response limited the toll, though the death count still made this the worst incident of its kind the country has recorded. A Neighborhood Gripped by Grief Grief spread quickly through the neighborhood around the school. Announcements over mosque loudspeakers urged residents to attend mass funeral prayers for the dead at the nearby Rehman Baba cemetery. Ambulances left the hospital to carry the children’s bodies home while mourners wept and wailed. Residents said most of the children who died lived in the Dir Colony neighborhood, where the school sits. So many families lost a child that neighbors struggled to decide which bereaved household to visit first to offer condolences. The loss touched nearly every street in the community. An injured teacher, Mahwish Zaman, spoke to The Associated Press from a hospital bed. She said the school had an estimated 1,200 students enrolled from nursery through fifth grade. She was in her classroom when the roof came down and said it felt as if the sky had fallen. She regained consciousness only after she reached the hospital. Weak Construction Standards Draw Scrutiny Building collapses are common in Pakistan, where authorities often fail to enforce construction standards. Builders frequently use substandard materials, and many people ignore safety regulations to cut costs. Those conditions leave schools, homes, and other structures vulnerable, and Thursday’s collapse shows how deadly the consequences can become when children fill the rooms. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Gov. Faisal Karim Kundi expressed sorrow over the collapse. The sources did not detail what caused the roofs to fail, and authorities have not yet publicly explained why the two classrooms gave way. Residents and families are likely to press for answers as the funerals continue. What Remains Uncertain Several questions remain open as the community buries its dead. The final toll could change because some of the injured remain in critical condition. Officials have not said how the school was built or when inspectors last examined it. Those details will shape any demand for accountability in the days ahead. For now, the focus stays on the families of the 34 children and the teacher who died, and on the more than 50 people recovering in hospitals. Rescuers, medical staff, and neighbors all moved fast on Thursday, and that effort saved dozens of children. It could not undo a tragedy that left an entire neighborhood in mourning. Post navigation Gulf Tanker Captains Paid $143,000 a Month to Brave Strait of Hormuz Blockades