Pakistan roof collapse kills 14 children at tutoring centre

Fourteen children died after ⁠the roof of a tutoring centre collapsed in Pakistan’s eastern city of ⁠Lahore on Tuesday, ⁠rescue ​officials have said, as authorities opened the way for a possible negligence ⁠investigation. Punjab’s emergency service said rescuers found children and a 30-year-old female teacher ⁠under the rubble of the private after-school facility. The ​children killed were aged ‌five to ‌16 with most below nine. Punjab information minister ‌Azma Bokhari said preliminary reports showed the tutoring centre was unregistered and operating inside a privately owned residential building under a dilapidated roof. Such centres are common across Pakistan, where ‌children attend extra lessons outside regular school hours. “If negligence, carelessness or any ​violation of the law is established, those responsible will face strict legal action,” Bokhari said in a statement. Workers had been repairing tiles on the building when the roof gave way, a witness told the AFP news agency. Broadcaster Geo News aired images of uniformed rescuers and civilians using spades and their hands to dig through dirt and rubble in the partially collapsed building. Relatives of the children who died after the tuition centre roof collapsed in Lahore. Photograph: Murtaza Ali/Reuters “The roof was in poor shape,” the uncle of one of the victims told the AFP news agency, adding that repair work was being carried out on tiles while the children studied. …