KNUST student crushed to death on campus

Kumasi, April 25, GNA - Eva Alordina, a Level 100 Business Administration student of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), in Kumasi, was on Saturday evening crushed to death by a falling slab of concrete at the Independence Hall.

Another student, Gertrude Kyere Davies, a Level 100 Pharmacy student, who together with the deceased, got trapped under the falling slab, is on admission at the KNUST Hospital after sustaining serious injuries. The two students were said to be leaving the Hall after visiting a friend when the about 200-metre slab, which adjoins the two main buildings of the Hall caved in.

The Hall, constructed in 1957 had not seen any major rehabilitation. Mr Solomon Panford, Head of the University Relations Office (URO), told the Ghana News Agency that the body of the deceased had since been deposited at the morgue for autopsy.

He said an emergency meeting would be held by the University Authorities on Sunday afternoon after which a statement would be issued. When the GNA visited the scene, debris from the slab had still not been cleared and some of the students were seen in an anxious mood as they could not come to terms with the tragic incident.

An eye-witness told the GNA that the incident happened at about 1630 hours, saying "all that we heard was a big bang only for us to see the two students trapped under the falling slab". He said there could have been more casualties but for the fact that most of the students were indoors busily learning for their various semester examinations.