3 children have fallen through the skylight on the roof of a school in the West Flemish coastal municipality of De Haan. A 12-year-old child was taken to hospital in critical condition but is now out of danger. The other two children were taken to hospital with minor injuries. The school’s headmaster says that none of the children involved in the accident that happened on Monday evening attend the school.
The accident happened at around 7:30pm on Monday on the roof of the De Zeeboom primary school in De Haan.
First Commissioner Dennis Goes of the Bredene/Dehaene Local Police Service told VRT News that the children “were playing and they climbed onto the flat roof where they fell around 5 metres through a skylight". The children landed on the floor of the school’s kitchen.
Not pupils at the school
The 3 children are aged 12 and 13 and all live locally. It is not clear what they were doing on the roof and none of them are pupils at the Zeeboom. The children called their parents and they went to the scene and called the police.
The school’s headmaster Tom Dermaut was informed about the accident. Mr Demaut told VRT News that “I was in a restaurant with my wife when I received a call from the police”.
He believes that it is likely that the children gained access to the school grounds via the adjacent scout hall.
“It's not the first time that youngsters have been up to mischief on the roof. In the summer they climb onto the roof via the scout hall to chill out or sunbathe. What they were doing there now is a mystery to me”.
Perhaps they didn't notice the dome because it was very dark. (...) They must have forced the gate because of course everything was locked.
The school will inform the pupils about the incident. “We will explain what happened in class. We will do this as a preventive measure, to ensure that none of our pupils venture onto the roof.”
The school is now looking for looking for someone to repair the skylight as quickly as possible.
Meanwhile, the police are investigating the precise circumstance of what happened and will keep the school up to date will the pogress of the investigation.