Fatal wall collapse warns schools to shield students

When the news spread that five girl students in a private junior high school in Huaibei, Anhui province, were crushed to death in a school wall collapse, people throughout the country felt an ache in their hearts at the loss of these young lives.

When the five teenagers at Tongren Middle School gathered together with others under the 3.3-meter-high wall encircling the playground to watch and cheer on their male classmates playing a basketball match on Monday afternoon, they would not have sensed the specter of death approaching. The entire 30-meter-long wall suddenly collapsed, burying students under the rubble. As well as the five girls who died two others were injured.

School personnel have been detained and a police investigation is now underway.