Three hurt after wall collapses in Shivpuri school

Bhopal: Three children were injured, two of them seriously, when a wall of their government school collapsed while classes were on in Shivpuri district of Madhya Pradesh on Tuesday afternoon. One of the victims has been shifted to Gwalior after his condition deteriorated.

Luckily, the roof of Government Vijay Anand Higher Secondary School, in Berad town, was made of tin sheets.

If it was concrete, it would have been catastrophic.

There were around 40 students in the class when the wall of Class 9 caved in around 1.30pm. “Three students — Sandeep Yadav, Akash Dhakad and Ankit Sharma — were sitting on the last bench with their backs to the wall. They fell down with the wall. Sandeep sustained serious injuries and has been referred to Gwalior, but he is stable and out of danger,” Berad police station in-charge Alok Singh Bhadoria told TOI. The other kids escaped without injury. Police rescued the trio and took them to hospital. No parent has filed a complaint yet, said Bhadoria.

It’s the responsibility of district education department officials to inspect school buildings. It is on their report that repairs are undertaken or buildings declared dangerous, said sources. Despite repeated attempts, district education officer Hariom Chaturvedi and collector Anugraha P could not be contacted for comments.