Teacher, 3 students electrocuted, die in Pakistani school

MANSEHRA, Pakistan – Police in Pakistan say a teacher and three students were electrocuted and died at a private school in the country’s northwest.

Police officer Abdur Rasheed says the four were hoisting the national flag during morning assembly in the village of Kiwai in the picturesque Kaghan Valley when tragedy struck on Tuesday.

The officer says the teacher, Safeer Ahmed, apparently didn’t realize as he was raising the banner that the steel pipe with the flag would come in contact with high voltage electricity cables suspended above ground. The three schoolchildren, aged 10, 12 and 13, tried to rescue him and were also electrocuted.

Police immediately shut the school down for being unsafe for students and were checking whether other schools in the mountainous region and the valley were meeting safety standards.