A part of a government boys school on Kallai road in Kozhikode was destroyed after two massive iron rods from a hotel nearby were blown away by heavy winds, crashing into the roof of the school on Thursday. While one of the rods fell into two classrooms, the other one crashed into the corridor of the school.
The incident happened at 10:30 am in Kozhikode. Fortunately, the District Collector had declared holiday for educational institutions, thereby avoiding a major tragedy.
“There’s a hotel called Woodies around 150 mts from the school. The building is much taller that the school blocks. The information we got was that two iron rods holding the temporary roof structure were blown away due to heavy winds and rain and landed on the school’s roof, causing a lot of damage,” an officer from the Kasaba station told TNM.
The heavy iron rod fell on top of the building which housed classes 5 and 6 of the Government Ganapath Boys School. The impact led to the entire thatched roof of the building collapsing into the classroom.
Visuals from the site showed that the rod had fallen on a wooden desk used by students. Rubble from the crumbling roof was also visible across the classroom and on top of the desks.
The two sections together normally houses at least 60 students.
No casualties were reported as the school was entirely deserted during the time of the incident. Parents complained that the private hotel, which towered above the school building, was illegally and unsustainably constructed. A demand has been made to take action against the construction of the hotel.
Kozhikode is one among the many districts in Kerala that is seeing flooding and a red warning has been issued for the district on Thursday. At least 6 relief camps have been opened in the district.
Kozhikode collector Sambasiva Rao also issued directions to stop the functioning of all quarries in the district.