By Staff Reporter
LAHORE: At least 14 children were killed and several more injured on Tuesday when the roof of a private tuition centre collapsed in the Kahna area of Lahore, officials said, in one of the deadliest accidents to strike Pakistan’s second-largest city in recent years.
The single-storey building, which housed classrooms on the ground floor, gave way in the afternoon while construction work was being carried out on a room above, according to police. More than 30 children were inside at the time, attending lessons run by a local woman who operated the centre from the property.
Punjab Health Minister Khawaja Imran Nazeer said 19 to 20 injured children were rushed to the nearby Kahna Tehsil Headquarters Hospital, where 14 were pronounced dead. Two were treated and discharged, while the remaining injured, including a teacher, were described as out of danger. Some of the wounded were later transferred to Lahore General Hospital, where authorities declared an emergency and directed senior doctors, nurses and paramedical staff to attend to the children without delay.
Lahore Deputy Inspector General of Police Faisal Kamran told reporters at the scene that the structure’s roof had been built using TR girders, a lightweight steel framework commonly used in low-cost construction across Pakistan. He said the number of labourers working on the additional room exceeded what the roof could safely bear, causing a girder to snap and the ceiling to come down on the rooms below.
“Eight children and one teacher are hospitalised, who are injured. Apart from that, the death of 14 children is confirmed,” Kamran said.
Rescue 1122 spokesperson Farooq Ahmed said the children trapped beneath the rubble were very young, and that two rooms in active use at the time of the collapse. “The ceilings collapsed and trapped the children,” he said.
The Edhi Foundation, whose ambulances and volunteers joined the rescue effort alongside Rescue 1122, said the roof “collapsed suddenly,” burying several children under debris. Edhi crews remained at the site through the afternoon providing emergency medical assistance as workers dug through the wreckage.
Lahore police said in a statement that rescue operations had concluded. Officers have taken into custody the owner of the building and the contractor who had recently carried out construction on the property, the statement said, as part of an initial investigation into the collapse. Kamran said evidence was being gathered and that strict action would be taken against anyone found responsible for negligence.
Tariq Mahmood, chief executive of the Lahore District Education Authority, said the building functioned as an unregistered private tuition centre run by a woman from the neighbourhood.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif expressed grief over the deaths and offered condolences to the families of the victims, directing authorities to ensure injured children received the best available medical treatment.
Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz ordered police and district officials to determine who was responsible for the collapse and to pursue criminal proceedings against them. She also directed hospitals to provide the injured with the highest standard of care.
The incident has renewed scrutiny of building safety standards in Lahore, where unregulated home-based schools and tuition centres operate widely in residential neighbourhoods, often in structures not designed or inspected for use by large numbers of children.
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