BHOPAL: At least four school students aged 5-7 were buried alive, while a woman and another schoolgirl were critically injured after an old and dilapidated wall of a house neighbouring a private school collapsed following continuous rains in Rewa district of Madhya Pradesh on Saturday. Three deceased kids and one of the injured are from a single family.
The incident happened at around 3 pm in Garh town of Rewa district – around 55 km from the headquarters of the eastern MP district.
An old wall of a house neighbouring a private school – Sunrise Public School – suddenly caved in. Some of the students returning home after their classes had ended for the day, along with a female guardian, were trapped under the wall.
Local residents rushed to the site to rescue the children buried under the debris of the collapsed wall.
Five students and a female guardian were rescued from the debris of the collapsed wall and rushed to the nearby community health centre (CHC), where the doctors declared four minors dead on arrival.
One girl and a female guardian (who lost her son in the killer mishap) were rushed by the police to the Sanjay Gandhi Government Medical College Hospital in Rewa city, where they are stated to be critical.
The four deceased children have been identified as Anshika Gupta (5), her cousins Manya Gupta (7) and Siddharth Gupta (5), and Anuj Prajapati (7).
The two injured have been identified as Rani Prajapati (27), whose son Anuj died in the mishap, and Raksha Gupta (8) whose younger sister Anshika and two cousins were among the deceased.
While condoling the deaths of the four children, the MP CM Dr Mohan Yadav announced financial assistance of Rs 2 lakh each to the families of the deceased children.
According to Rewa district police superintendent Vivek Singh, the two critically injured have been admitted at the Government Medical College in Rewa city.
“The owners of the house whose old wall collapsed will certainly be booked in a criminal case,” Singh added.
According to unconfirmed reports from Rewa district, there was a dispute between two brothers over the old and dilapidated wall which collapsed. The management of the neighbouring school as well as the parents of children studying in the school had often demanded dismantling the dangerous wall, but it couldn’t be done due to the dispute.
Meanwhile, a three-year-old girl and a 17-year-old boy died in a house collapse triggered by rain in Narsinghpur district of central MP on Friday. Local residents saved five others from the debris of the collapsed house in the nick of time.