Mourners gathered Wednesday in Lahore, Pakistan, to bury 14 schoolchildren killed when the roof of a tutoring center collapsed a day earlier, as authorities continued investigating whether negligence during construction work caused the tragedy.
The collapse also injured eight other children, who remain hospitalized in stable condition. Investigators believe the tutoring center was operating inside an aging building, and preliminary findings suggest the unfinished second-floor roof gave way because of poor construction.
Police have arrested at least two people, including the building's owner, as the investigation continues. Senior police official Kamran Faisal said early evidence points to negligence by both the owner and construction workers.
"We are still investigating to determine exactly whose negligence resulted in this tragic incident," Faisal said.
Funeral prayers for the victims, who ranged in age up to 14 years old, began before dawn and continued throughout Wednesday morning. Most of the children were buried in a local cemetery, while some families took their loved ones to their hometowns for burial.
Ambulances delivered the victims' bodies overnight to homes in Kahna, a neighborhood on the outskirts of Lahore. Grieving relatives gathered through the night, with mothers and family members mourning beside the bodies while classmates and friends stood nearby in tears.
Among those attending the funerals was Mohammad Ashfaq, who lost both his 7-year-old son and nephew in the collapse.
"I cannot express my pain and grief in words," Ashfaq said as relatives comforted him.
Another grieving parent, Muhammad Farooq, recalled learning of the disaster shortly after his daughter left for her tutoring class.
"Yesterday she went to her tuition class at around 4 p.m.," Farooq said. "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."
Residents said neighbors rushed to the scene before emergency crews arrived, using shovels and even their bare hands to search through the rubble in an effort to rescue trapped children.
"Rescuers arrived quickly, but before they reached us, neighbors rushed in with shovels and even dug through the debris with their bare hands," said local resident Mohammad Tahir. "We also pulled children from the rubble, but many could not be saved."
Building collapses remain a recurring problem in Pakistan, where construction standards are often poorly enforced and structures are sometimes built with substandard materials while safety regulations are overlooked to reduce costs.
As the community mourns, many residents have also expressed anger, accusing the tutoring center's owner of continuing classes in what they described as an unsafe building while construction work was underway. They are calling for those responsible to be held fully accountable.
"We don't know whose funeral to attend first or whose home to visit first to offer condolences," Tahir said.
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