LAHORE, Pakistan — Grief-stricken families and community members came together Wednesday in the Pakistani city of Lahore to lay to rest 14 young students who lost their lives when the roof of a tutoring center gave way the day before.
Authorities are now investigating whether negligence tied to ongoing construction at the building was responsible for the deadly collapse. Eight other children who were injured in the incident remain hospitalized in stable condition.
Both residents in the area and early police findings suggest the tutoring center had been operating out of an older building. Investigators believe the unfinished second-floor roof may have given way due to shoddy construction work.
Senior police official Kamran Faisal confirmed that at least two individuals had been taken into custody, including the owner of the building, as investigators work to establish who bears responsibility. Faisal said negligence on the part of the owner and construction workers appears to be at the root of the disaster.
“We are still investigating to determine exactly whose negligence resulted in this tragic incident,” Faisal said.
Funeral prayers for the victims, all of whom were 14 years old or younger, began before sunrise and carried on into Wednesday morning. The majority of the children were laid to rest in a nearby cemetery, though some families chose to transport their loved ones to their hometowns for burial.
Overnight, ambulances carried the children’s remains back to their families in Kahna, a neighborhood on the edge of Lahore. As the bodies arrived home, the sound of wailing filled the streets. Mothers and female relatives kept vigil beside the children through the night, while classmates and friends stood nearby, visibly overcome with sorrow.
Among those attending the Wednesday morning funerals was Mohammad Ashfaq, a laborer who lost both his 7-year-old son and his nephew in the collapse.
“I cannot express my pain and grief in words,” Ashfaq said, weeping, as family members tried to offer him comfort.
Not far away, Muhammad Farooq mourned the death of his young daughter.
“Yesterday she went to her tuition class at around 4 p.m.,” Farooq recalled. “Around 4:45 p.m., my family called me and said the roof of the tuition center had collapsed. They told me many children were trapped under the debris. Fourteen children were killed, and the injured were taken to the hospital.”
Local resident Mohammad Tahir described how neighbors rushed to help before emergency responders could arrive.
“Rescuers arrived quickly, but before they reached us, neighbors rushed in with shovels and even dug through the debris with their bare hands,” Tahir said. “We also pulled children from the rubble, but many could not be saved.”
Building collapses are not uncommon in Pakistan, where construction regulations are frequently ignored and structures are often built using substandard materials in an effort to cut costs.
For many in the community, grief has given way to anger. Residents have placed blame on the tutoring center’s owner for holding classes in what they say was a deteriorating, unsafe building, even as construction was underway, and they are calling for those responsible to face serious consequences.
“We don’t know whose funeral to attend first or whose home to visit first to offer condolences,” Tahir said.
