Five girls killed; 27 injured in stampede in Delhi school

New Delhi, Sep 10 (PTI) Five girls were on Thursday
killed and 27 other students injured, five of them critically,
in a stampede triggered by rumours of a short circuit in a
government school flooded with rain water in North Eastern
parts of national capital New Delhi.

Students rushed out of their classrooms in the
Government Senior Secondary School in Khajuri Khas at around
9 am following the rumours.

"Five girl students were killed in the incident while
27 others were injured," Joint Commissioner (New Delhi)
Dharmendra Kumar said. Out of the 27 injured, he said, 26 are
girls.

The injured have been taken to the nearby Guru Tegh
Bahadur Hospital. GTB Medical Superintendent O P Kalra said,
"Out of the injured, five students are very critical. They are
on life support system. Others are relatively stable and
conscious. They are being attended by neuro-surgeons,
orthopaedic surgeons and anaesthetics".

Kumar said, "There was a stampede when some of the
children on the first floor were asked to come down.
Apparently the staircase was very narrow. Most of the children
got stuck there".

The overnight heavy rains had flooded the premises and
once the rumour spread, students started running out of
their classrooms, leading to a stampede, another senior police
official said. MORE PTI