Roof collapse at Pakistani school kills at least 35

At least 34 students and a teacher were killed, and more than 50 others injured after the roof of a school in northwestern Pakistan collapsed on Thursday, authorities said.

The incident occurred at Al-Khair Education Center, a private school in Peshawar, the capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. The school's principal and owner have been arrested.

Video showed an ambulance rushed to the scene as the rescue operation got underway.

"We located 16 dead bodies at the site. We located them at the collapsed building. It was a collapsed structure. After that, the operation began and continued for around 4 to 5 hours. When the operation ended, we had recovered 29 dead bodies. Among them was a female teacher," said Arif Khattak, regional director of the Rescue Department.

According to Tanveer Daud, father of an injured student, the building was poorly constructed.

"The situation there was terrible, and when a sound like that came, people got frightened. We ran to the school, and saw a lot of commotion there. Children had fallen, and many people had come out. Here, the building's construction was poor. The roof was very weak. It was a three-story building, all of it resting on girders," he recalled.

The tragedy has raised serious questions about safety standards at private schools across Pakistan. Provincial authorities have called for a thorough investigation and safety inspections of educational institutions to prevent similar tragedies.

Roof collapse at Pakistani school kills at least 35

Hong Kong stocks rallied on Friday, as robust performance in the technology and real estate sectors offset weakness in energy and consumer staples, according to a market analyst.

The benchmark Hang Seng Index rose 0.52 percent to 24,186.83 points, while the Hang Seng Tech Index jumped 1.16 percent to 4,108.24 points. The Hang Seng China Enterprises Index edged up 0.31 percent to 8,128.25 points.

Despite the positive close, Timothy Pope, a market analyst at China Global Television Network (CGTN), noted that the market relinquished some of its early intraday momentum after briefly surging more than 1.3 percent.

"The Hang Seng closed 0.5 higher, although that was well down from its earlier gains of more than 1.3 percent. Real estate stocks did reasonably well in Hong Kong today, as they did on the Chinese mainland. But apart from that, the picture was a little different. Energy shares were down, along with some consumer staples. Consumer discretionary stocks, like sportswear makers Anta and Li-Ning, performed pretty well, as did the PC maker Lenovo. Innovative pharmaceutical companies were also finding favor with investors. BeOne Medicines gained more than 4 percent," said Pope.

Hong Kong stocks rally as tech, real estate offset energy, staples weakness: analyst