A fire drill at a college in Tamil Nadu's Coimbatore went horribly wrong after a 19-year-old girl died. She was pushed off a ledge by a trainer.
The drill was being conducted in Kalaimagal College of Arts and Science on Thursday as a part of disaster preparedness training and things to do in case fire breaks out.
Here's what happened
The video, which has now gone viral, shows 19-year-old Logeswari sitting on a ledge on the second floor The footage also shows 11 other students waiting below with a safety net to catch Logeswari when she jumps from the second floor.
In the 28-second-long video, the victim, who is clearly not ready to take the leap is seen hesitating as the trainer standing behind insists her to jump. After several seconds, the trainer gives her a push.
Unfortunately, before falling into the safety net, Logeswari's head hit the sunshade on the first floor. On seeing her lying motionless in the safety net, her terrified classmates rushed her to a hospital where she was declared brought dead.
Other students too had participated in the drill
Before the accident, several other students had taken turns jumping from the second floor and landed in the safety net as part of the fire drill. A total of 20 students had participated in the training.
"A group from Chennai was conducting the training. They have done the same drill in several other colleges for the past five years. Several of them did it before her and nothing happened to them. This was an accident," The News Minute quoted an investigating official as saying.
Meanwhile, the trainer who has been identified as Tr Arumugam has been remanded in police custody. A case under section 304(a) for causing death by negligence has also been registered.
Here's a video of the drill
(Disturbing video, viewer discretion advised)
