CHENNAI: For Florence Angel, who died in a bridge collapse in a Nepal village on Saturday, it was a last-minute decision to get on board the college field trip to the Himalayan kingdom to gain exposure to other schools of social work. While her body is being brought back on Monday, the fate of her classmate Hamida G Momin of Meghalaya, who was washed away by the swift stream, remains uncertain. Nine students were injured, three critically, in the accident.
A thick pal of gloom descended on Mar Gregorios Arts and Science College in Mogappair (West) on Sunday, as students, parents and faculty members tried to come to terms with the tragedy that had befallen the 46-member ‘Master of Social Work’ (MSW) team of the institution. A black flag hoisted at the gate showed that the college, which has 1,300 students in its rolls, was in mourning.
Florence’s father T Sourimuthu, a retired head constable and resident of Alandur, was inconsolable. “I refused to grant her permission for the trip,” he said. “But she was adamant.”
Her family was wary of the tour after 19 persons, including eight builders from Tiruchy, were killed in a plane crash in September in Nepal. When Florence cried and insisted that the trip was a compulsory element of her MSW syllabus, her elder brother Lourde Xavier (31), who works in the IT sector, relented and doled out the trip fee of `15,000. Looking shocked and dazed, Lourde said his sister was a socially conscious person, besides being a good singer. “She was a popular member of the church choir.”
The 15-day trip that started on October 12 was not without its hitches. While a student Subhashini withdrew citing health reasons, Mariya Ann O’Connor missed the train and later took a flight to join her team.
As per a note from the Indian Embassy in Nepal to the college, the group consisting of 43 students, two faculty members Fr John Peter and Udhaya Selvi and an alumnus were on their way from Kathmandu to Pokhara on Saturday afternoon. The bus stopped at Phisling, about 80 km from Kathmandu, for a short break.
Tragedy struck when a group of 16 students tried to cross a suspension bridge over the river Trishuli. While six students managed to reach the other side safely, 10 others fell into the river when the bridge gave away under their weight. Florence died on the spot when she fell on a rock, while Hamida was swept away by the swift current. Her body is yet to be recovered. An elderly Nepali man was also killed.
Ironically, Lourde spoke to his sister just an hour before. “I called her around 12.15 pm. She told me she was in a bus on the way to a tourist spot,” he said.
Three students, G Rahgmei Champoulang of Manipur, B Ramesh of Chennai and P P Syjo Davis of Kerala, were critically injured and admitted to C S hospital in Bharatpur. Six others, who suffered fractures and minor injuries, were admitted to the government hospital in Bharatpur. College principal P Prakasam said that news of the tragedy reached them around 1.30 pm on Saturday. Efforts were on to bring back the students and Florence’s body with the assistance of the State government.
Initially, the plan was to bring them by a chartered flight on Sunday night. The critically injured students were scheduled to be brought from the Bharatpur hospital to the airport by a helicopter just before departure. But inclement weather has forced a postponement, college authorities said. Under the new schedule, the flight had been cancelled. Instead, the students would take a regular flight to Delhi and arrive here on Monday night. Eugene Shanthi, parent of a student, R S Ajith Moses (23), who is part of the team, told Express, that when she spoke to her son on Sunday he was still at the mishap site. “They are terribly upset. They had set out on a joy trip and now they had lost two of their classmates.”