A teaching center in Pakistan collapses, killing at least 14 children, officials say

Lahore, Pakistan — A roof collapsed at an educational center under construction in the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore on Tuesday, killing at least 14 schoolchildren, police and rescue officials said.

Another 8 children were injured and treated at the hospital, said police chief Faisal Kamran, adding that the owner of the educational center and another person were arrested.

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Kamran said that the rescuers were searching for the debris after receiving reports that many children were trapped under the debris. He said the teaching center was housed in a dilapidated building and the roof of the unfinished floor collapsed due to the poor quality of construction.

Building collapses are common in Pakistan, where building standards are often poorly enforced. Many buildings are built with inferior materials, and safety regulations are often ignored to reduce costs. Residential building it fell less than a year ago south of the city of Karachi, more than a dozen people died.

Eyewitnesses said that ambulances and rescuers rushed to the scene after the roof collapsed. Residents also joined the search operation, using shovels and their hands to remove the debris in an attempt to reach the children trapped under the debris.

Hours later, as the children’s bodies were handed over to their families, scenes of grief emerged outside hospitals and in a neighborhood outside Lahore where a private teaching center was housed. Parents cried for the loss of their children, mothers and other female relatives cried and beat their chests because of grief.

Most of the victims lived nearby, and a funeral prayer is expected to be held later on Tuesday.

Sorrow was mixed with anger as the residents wanted the owner of the teaching center to be severely punished, accusing him of running classes in what they described as an aging and unsafe building. A large number of people who were crying were seen gathered outside the homes of the deceased to comfort them.

“We don’t know who will visit whose house first to express their condolences for the loss of their children,” said resident Zafar Iqbal while leaving the house of the deceased family to another nearby road.

Lahore is the capital of Pakistan’s most populous Punjab province, where many parents send their children to private tutoring centers in the afternoon and evening.

Pakistan’s President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif expressed grief over the collapse of the roof of an evening school building in Lahore. In other separate statements, they expressed their condolences to the families of the dead, prayed for the recovery of those injured, and said that effective safety measures are needed to avoid similar tragedies.