Four basic school pupils are in critical condition after a school building collapsed at Sukrung Awemfi in the Upper West Akim District of the Eastern Region.
The incident occurred on Wednesday, February 14, during a Zonal Inter School sports competition.
A teacher and three other members of the community also got injured and are currently receiving treatment at the Adeiso District Hospital.
Speaking to the media, the Zonal Vice Chairman, John Priestly Badu, said the sports competition was held at Sukrung Awemfi D/A School premises.
He said they sought shelter in the dilapidated school building when it started raining.
They were, however, unlucky when three classrooms caved in on them.
Some eyewitnesses quickly came to their rescue and rushed the injured to the hospital.
Mr Badu complained about failed attempts to get the authorities in the district to renovate the battered school building.
“We have written several times to the MP and DCE to fix that school, but we haven’t had a favourable response. It is a serious situation,” he said.
Within the past 10 months, similar incidents of collapsed dilapidated school buildings have claimed about five lives and caused severe injuries to many across the country.
Information gathered indicated that the chiefs of the community organized a football game for youth in the community.
Not long after the game commenced, it began raining heavily, so most of the people on the field rushed to one of the classrooms at Badu Roman Catholic Basic School.
While waiting for the rains to stop, the storm shook the foundations of the building and ripped off the roof. The people in the building vamoosed out of fear, but some of them were crushed by the roof, leading to their deaths.
In another incident, a dilapidated school structure in the Sehwi Wiawso Municipality of the Western North Region injured 10 out of 50 pupils after the building collapsed following a windstorm.