A teacher and three students were electrocuted on Tuesday at a private school in the Kiwai area of Kaghan valley in the Mansehra district, police said.

The bodies of the victims were shifted to Kiwai Hospital.

Police officer Abdur Rasheed said that the four were hoisting the national flag during a morning assembly when tragedy struck.

The teacher, Safeer Ahmed, apparently didn't realise 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 officer said.

When the three schoolchildren — Mohammad Bilal, Mohammad Asif and Asim — between the ages of 10 to 13 tried to rescue their teacher, they were also electrocuted.

The incident took place at the Al Khidmat Foundation School in Kiwai. 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.

Additional reporting by AP