Chijioke Agwu, Abakaliki

Five pupils of St Michael Nursery and Primary School Oshiri in Onicha local government area of Ebonyi State were yesterday crushed to death by a speeding tanker.

Our correspondent gathered that the tragic incident occurred in front of the school gate on Tuesday afternoon.

The incident has thrown the school and indeed the entire community into devastating mourning.

A member of the community who witnessed the incident said the driver of the tanker appeared to have lost control of the vehicle as he was seen struggling with the steering to avoid hitting the school children but his efforts failed as he rammed on them killing five of them on the spot.

The man who pleaded for anonymity said ‘’the driver was on speed and it appeared he lost the control of the steering. He was struggling to control the vehicle but that was too late as he ended up crushing the children to death. The whole community is boiling now ‘’

Asked if the driver of the tanker died or sustained any injury in the accident, he said that the driver of the tanker and two other occupants of the vehicle had disappeared into the bush upon sighting the gravity of the tragedy, adding that their whereabouts were unknown as on Wednesday morning.

When contacted, the Police Public Relations Officer for Ebonyi command, DSP Loveth Odah, said the matter had not been brought to her table.

Odah promised to get back to our correspondent after contacting the DOP of Onicha Police Station.

She was however yet to get back to our correspondent as at the time of filing this report.