School Railing Collapse Kills 21 In China

A staircase guardrail at a school in northern China collapsed while students were leaving, causing a crush of humanity that killed 21 schoolchildren and injured 47, authorities and the official Xinhua News Agency reported Tuesday.

The accident at the No. 2 Middle School in Fengzhen, a city in the Inner Mongolia region of northern China, happened at 6:50 p.m. Monday, Xinhua said. A guardrail along stairs inside the building gave way while students poured out of classes at the end of the day, the report said.

The exact death toll remained unknown Tuesday afternoon because more students may have died en route to hospitals, said a duty officer at the Fengzhen Public Security Bureau. She refused to give her name.

The collapsed rail was just above the first-floor level, the officer said. She said the students who were killed didn't fall far but were crushed by hundreds of others who fell on top of them.

She said students behind those hurt in the initial collapse did not see what happened and kept pushing forward.

"The dead children were lying there with open eyes and mouths. It looked really tragic and miserable," said the officer.

Government officials and hundreds of armed police sealed off roads around the school and ordered local media not to report the accident, she said.

More than 260 medical workers and 12 ambulances responded to the accident, Xinhua said. It said special teams had been assembled to investigate the cause.

"The school must bear the account. At the least, evening classes have been forbidden," the Fengzhen police officer said.

Many of the injured children were sent to remote hospitals in other cities because of Fengzhen's limited medical facilities, she said.

An official at Fengzhen city government offices confirmed the accident but said no one was available to give details. He would not give his name.

Calls to the Fengzhen No. 2 Middle School went unanswered.

Fengzhen is about 150 miles northwest of Beijing, the capital.