Lahore buries 14 children killed in tutoring center roof collapse

Families in Lahore buried 14 schoolchildren Wednesday after a tutoring center roof collapsed during classes, a disaster that has brought scrutiny to construction work at the building. Police are investigating whether negligence during the work caused the collapse, the Associated Press reported.

The roof gave way Tuesday in Kahna, a neighborhood on the outskirts of Pakistan’s eastern city. Eight other children were injured and were hospitalized in stable condition, according to police cited by AP.

Senior police official Kamran Faisal told AP that at least two people, including the building owner, had been arrested while investigators worked to determine responsibility. Faisal said early findings pointed to possible negligence by the owner and construction workers.

“We are still investigating to determine exactly whose negligence resulted in this tragic incident,” Faisal said, according to AP.

Police examine building work

Residents and preliminary police findings indicated the tutoring center was operating inside an old building, AP reported. Investigators believe an unfinished second-floor roof may have collapsed because of poor construction.

The children killed were up to 14 years old, according to AP. Funeral prayers began before dawn Wednesday and continued through the morning, with most victims buried in a local graveyard. Some families planned to take bodies to their native towns for burial.

Ambulances brought the children’s bodies home overnight to Kahna, where families and neighbors gathered in grief. AP reported that mothers and other female relatives sat beside the bodies through the night, while classmates and friends stood nearby crying.

Among the mourners was Mohammad Ashfaq, a laborer whose 7-year-old son and nephew died in the collapse. “I cannot express my pain and grief in words,” he told AP as relatives tried to console him.

Muhammad Farooq, whose young daughter was killed, told AP she had gone to her tuition class at about 4 p.m. Tuesday. He said his family called around 4:45 p.m. to say the roof had fallen and children were trapped under debris.

“Fourteen children were killed, and the injured were taken to the hospital,” Farooq said, according to AP.

Neighbors dug through rubble

Local resident Mohammad Tahir told AP that neighbors reached the site before rescue teams and tried to free children with shovels and their hands. “We also pulled children from the rubble, but many could not be saved,” he said.

AP reported that anger has spread among residents, who blamed the tutoring center’s owner for holding classes in an aging building while construction was underway. Some demanded strict punishment for those found responsible.

Building collapses occur frequently in Pakistan, where AP reported that construction standards are often weakly enforced, substandard materials are commonly used and safety rules are sometimes ignored to cut costs.

Tahir described a neighborhood overwhelmed by the scale of the loss. “We don’t know whose funeral to attend first or whose home to visit first to offer condolences,” he told AP.

This story draws on original reporting from NPR.