Deadly school disaster in Pakistan

SPEAKER_1 (0:00)

This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. Hello, I'm Uncredited Sy and at 16 Hours GMT on Thursday 15th October. These are our main stories. A school roof has collapsed in northwestern Pakistan, killing more than 30 children and a teacher. Ukraine has attacked a Russian oil refinery. In response, it says to Russia, breaking the energy ceasefire declared by President Trump. And Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have made their first official public visit since they returned to live in the UK.

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SPEAKER_1 (0:45)

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We begin in Pakistan, where a roof has collapsed at a school in Peshawar, killing at least 32 students and a teacher. The children were all under the age of 13 Officials say at least 19 others are injured, some critically. This man, Sohel, told us his niece was inside the building when it happened and survived.

Sohel (1:16)

My young niece had left the school to buy a pencil. She told me that on her way back to school. She stepped onto the stairs and the roof collapsed. She managed to get outside and told me, the school has collapsed. When I arrived at the scene, I saw around 10 to 15 children trapped beneath the rubble with debris piled up to their necks.

We quickly pulled them out.

SPEAKER_1 (1:38)

Police say the owner of the school has been arrested and the site is under investigation. But rescue operations have concluded and no one remains under the rubble. I got the latest from our reporter at the scene, Aziz Ula Khan.

Azizullah Khan (1:52)

I'm standing at the moment in front of that school. So we are seeing that a lot of people are visiting over here into the school area where the building has been collapsed. There was a two-floor building over there and this was very dilapidated condition because there were a lot of students are there. What we police have told us that about 110 students were over there and they were in the classrooms over there. And at that time, it's like quarter to nine, I think. So when the cracking sound was heard by the people and they rushed over to the school and they saw that there was a building, part of that building was collapsed. When we saw this building, this was in a very dilapidated condition. This was constructed in the first floor of construction with the tea iron and garters, where the rest of it was constructed with the mud and the wooden things. So it cannot bear the weight of the students because there was 110 students over there and it collapsed over here.

The rescue process is still here, but the injured and the dead bodies were rushed to the Lady Reading Hospital in Peshawar. This is one of the congested areas over here in Peshawar, at the capital of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. The hospital says that they have received 33 dead bodies, whereas about 22 were injured. And still they say that the death toll can be getting higher because some injured were in critical conditions over the year.

We have talked to the police officials and when we find out that how the No Objection Certificate was given to this school, that how it was working over here when this was in such a bad condition. They say that we have put this proposal to the administration and the government to think over it, that how it can happen when such conditions building was there. There's a lot of students, mostly poor students of this area. I have spoken to the local people and I talked to them and they said that their children were studying over here and they didn't know that it can collapse anytime.

SPEAKER_1 (3:55)

Azizullah, what more do we know about the investigation that's currently being undertaken? I'm seeing reports that the owner of the school has been arrested as investigations are carried out regarding the structure of the building.

Azizullah Khan (4:08)

Yes, I have spoken to the senior superintendent of the police, Farhan Khan.

They have taken the principle of that school. First information report, the police have registered the case as well. And he was saying that investigation would be started. The education department, they have also constituted an inquiry committee to find out how it happens over here. Similarly, I have spoke to the information minister of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, Samar Haroon Vlod, and she says that this inquiry is going to be conducted and we will find out that how this school was working over here. And similarly, how it was given the no objection certificate, where was the monitoring team, where was the education department authorities were there, and where was the government, that why it has not been taken into the account to find it out that how such kind of a bad condition building was working over here.