Panicking pupils killed

Press, 7 December 1988, Page 10

Panicking pupils killed

NZPA-Reuter Yaounde, Cameroun At least 50 children have been killed and 147 injured in a > school stampede in Cameroun which according to some eyewitnesses began because children thought their five-storey school building was collapsing.

Children at the Institut Polyvalent Jean Monthe in the capital, Yaounde, thought the building was collapsing when they

heard a scaffolding plank fall, they said after the disaster yesterday. Other eyewitnesses said the stampede followed an incident in which pupils banged their wooden desks in solidarity with one of their leaders rebuked by the deputy headmaster.

A provisional casualty toll issued by a Govern-ment-appointed medical committee said at least 50 children were killed and

147 injured in the stampede, including two reported in a serious condition.

Doctors at the nearby central hospital had earlier put the number of dead at 55.

The accident occured early in the morning when pupils from the private secondary school, named aftei* its headmaster, tried to escape through a narrow stairway. Eyewitnesses x said

some were trampled to death or suffocated. Others jumped from windows.

A brief official communique broadcast on Yaounde radio said the Government had ordered a inquiry into the causes of the accident. Armed soldiers and paramilitary forces guarded the entrance of the hospital to keep crowds of worried parents in order.