Henan school stampede kills one, injures 20

A student has been confirmed dead and more than 20 others injured following a stampede at a primary school bathroom Wednesday in Central China’s Henan Province.

Tragedy struck around 8: 30 am when students began shoving each other at a bathroom entrance in Puyang No. 3 experimental primary school, the Xinhua News Agency reported.

The Puyang county government rushed injured students to hospitals for treatment. Five students are believed to be in critical condition.

The government’s publicity department and the school could not be reached by the Global Times as of press time.

Though the cause of the stampede remains under investigation, a Net user claiming to be a parent of a student at the school said the collapse of the bathroom wall caused the stampede, The Beijing News reported.

An employee at the publicity office of Puyang City People’s Hospital, which took in 12 of the injured children and another one who died on the way to the hospital, told the Global Times that five are being treated at the hospital’s intensive care unit.

The employee also said that officials from different departments had arrived at the hospital in the morning to lead the rescue work.

The primary school’s principal has been sacked, k618. cn, a news portal run by the Communist Youth League Central Committee, reported on Wednesday.