Seven girls were killed and 32 others injured in a stampede after some boys spread rumours of an electric current in rain water, creating panic among hundreds who were crowded on a narrow school staircase on Thursday morning. Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit has ordered an inquiry into the incident at the Government Senior Secondary School in northeast Delhi.
At 9.30am, a senior teacher announced that all girls on the upper floor should move to the ground floor and boys on the ground floor were told to move upstairs. Some boys misbehaved with the girls on the 4.5-foot wide staircase. Simultaneously, some boys shouted that there was electric current in the rain water, which had flooded the premises following heavy rain in Delhi on Wednesday.
This led to panic among the students, who were mainly from standards VII to XII.
The injured students were taken to the Guru Tegh Bahadur Hospital, where many anxious parents were looking out for their children many hours after the incident. “I haven’t found my son till now,” said Ram Kishan, one of the parents. “The school should have informed us.”
Dikshit, who visited the injured at hospital, said the school was not totally at fault. “I’m very sad about what happened. This is a horrifying accident. An independent inquiry will be conducted.” She announced a compensation of Rs1 lakh each for families of the dead and Rs50,000 each for the injured.
“We will take every care of the children in hospital,” Dikshit said.
The police said at the time of the incident, there were around 1,300 students inside the school and all of them were evacuated. The police cordoned off the area after angry parents later blocked traffic and attacked vehicles in protest.
Union human resource development minister Kapil Sibal said schools should take measures to ensure their compounds are not accident-prone.
Delhi Mayor Kanwar Sain, however, blamed “negligence” by authorities for the stampede and demanded a judicial inquiry into the mishap. He also said the compensation amount should be increased.
