Dozens of children injured in stampede

[Xiao Qiao]

Dozens of children injured in stampede

China Daily

Police investigating the stampede incident at the school​

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At least 41 young students were injured, seven seriously, in a stampede at a primary school in Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region of China. Zhang Yuping, director of the local medical emergency center, said more than 170 students from the Aksu No 5 Primary School were rushed to hospital after the incident around noon on Monday.

A student receiving treatment after she was injured in a stampede incident​

A school staff, who did not want to be named, said the students were going downstairs to the playground for after-class exercises during the incident. He said some students slipped own the steps and triggered the stampede. Students were squeezed against the handrails and some were forced by momentum to step on others who had fallen down the stairs between the first and second floor of the main teaching building, he said.

The steps on the stairs were about 1.5 meters wide, he added. "It was an old school building. The steel bars of the handrails were bent by the force." The building houses more than 1,800 students. The injured students are being treated at Aksu's No 1 People's Hospital. Authorities have launched an investigation and ordered safety inspections to be carried out on schools.