Summary Thirty-three children and a teacher died in a school roof collapse in Peshawar, while officials and a UN team visited the site.
PESHAWAR (Web Desk) - Grief continued to grip Peshawar on the second day after the deadly Dir Colony school tragedy, as political leaders, government officials and other dignitaries visited the affected school and met the bereaved families.
According to Express News, 33 children and a female teacher were killed when the school roof collapsed on Thursday morning.
A foreign team comprising United Nations representatives also visited the school to assess its infrastructure and meet the families of the deceased children.
During the visit, the secretary of the Private Schools Regulatory Authority briefed the UN delegation on the incident and shared details of the available facts. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Governor Faisal Karim Kundi, Federal Minister Amir Muqam, Provincial Interior Minister Kifayat, the health minister, advisers and other political leaders and government officials also met the victims’ families.
Inquiry committees have been formed to investigate the tragedy, but, according to the report, no relevant department had yet visited the site to conduct its investigation.
Zakirullah, the father of two children who died in the incident, said he had three children — two sons and a daughter. His daughter informed him about the incident, and when he reached the school, he found his sons trapped beneath the rubble in a devastating scene.
He said his sons, Abubakar and Muhammad, both second-grade students, had died after being buried under the debris. Rescue personnel recovered the children and shifted them to a hospital.
Zakirullah, who serves as deputy prayer leader at the Peshawar Services Club and originally belongs to Dir, said his children had been studying at the school since the beginning.
In another account, a child had reportedly been sent home to bring school fees and returned to find the roof collapsed. The child’s friends, Abdullah, Shayan and Muhammad, were among those who died.
According to the children, the roof used to shake when they moved around, but a teacher had reassured them that there was nothing to fear. Several other families also lost children in the tragedy, including the family of Pir Muhammad, which lost five children.
