JOIN US5 students killed in school stampede
The incident occurred as students tried to flee their classrooms following rumours that electric current had leaked into water that had collected across the school compound due to heavy overnight rain, police sources said.
Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal termed the incident “shocking and shameful”.
They rushed out
The victims were students of classes 7 to 10 at the Government Senior Secondary School at Khajoori Khas in northeast Delhi.
The children, who braved the heavy downpour to take examination, got panicky as rumours went round that the ankle-deep water on the ground floor was charged with electric current. They rushed out of their classrooms at once, resulting in a stampede.
Joint Commissioner of Police Dharmendra Kumar said the injured had been admitted to Guru Tegh Bahadur Hospital.
Probe ordered
Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, who visited the hospital, announced a compensation of Rs 1,00,000 each to the next of kin of those killed and Rs 50,000 for the seriously injured.
She also announced an inquiry into the incident. Meanwhile, security has been tightened at the school as well as the hospital.
Parents of the injured children complained that they were not allowed to see their children.
No school official was available for comment. Meanwhile, the students’ relatives and local residents gathered in front of the school to protest the “negligence on the part of the administration”.
They shouted slogans and blocked the road in front of the school.
Mother loses her fasting daughter
A distraught Shamshari was wailing inconsolably over the “biggest tragedy” after losing her 12-year-old daughter Afroz in the school stampede here on Thursday that also claimed four more lives, reports IANS from New Delhi. “My daughter was fasting for Ramzan. She will never get to break her fast now,” Shamshari said before she fainted.