children

REJIMON K

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NIZWA: Two children injured in Thursday’s Indian School Nizwa bus accident are still fighting for life, hospital medics said.

“Jaden Jaison and Siya Babu, both Class II students, are still battling for life. However, we are seeing a little progress in Nandika’s status. All are in intensive care unit. We are trying our best to save them,” medics told Times of Oman.

“Seven children are in surgical ward. Surgeries are done in turns,” medics added.

Thirty four children were bought to hospital with injuries following the accident. The children were on board of an ill-fated bus which met an accident when it was on its way Nizwa on Thursday afternoon at around 1pm when they were returning after a trip to Bahla and nearby areas.

The school bus was hit by another vehicle carrying fish near Jibrin on way to Nizwa. Around 120 children had gone for the trip from the school in four buses.

Two Indian children, Mohammed Shammas and Ruya, one Indian teacher, Deepal Seth, and two Omani drivers lost their life in the accident.

“My child, Hanna Aleena, was sitting on teacher’s lap who died in the accident. When the bus was hit by another vehicle, luckily she got hold a handle in the bus so she was not thrown away. But the teacher got hit badly on the window. My daughter has injuries on her hand and body. It will heal. But she has seen her teacher and her friends dying in front of her. What kind of trauma it will be,” Mohammed Nawab, father of Hanna, said.

“I don’t know what to say. My child is saved. But we lost two children and teacher. Two more are still fighting for their life,” Mohammed added.

Meanwhile, Mohammed Shammas was buried in Bisiyah, some 40kms far from Nizwa, near his home. Ruya’s body and Deepal body was scheduled to Royal Oman Police hospital in Qurum for embalming by Friday evening.

Shammas and Ruya is from the south Indian state of Kerala. Deepal is from Pune in Maharashtra.

“I was told that my child had got injured in a bus accident. When I rushed to the hospital, I found that he has left us. His mother has still not got out of the shock. She is saying that bring back her child, she will take care of him,” Mohammed Shammas’ father Ahmed Kabir said.

According to parents, after the incident, it was the Omanis who were passing by the accident spot rushing the injured children to the hospital in their vehicles.

“It was an awful situation in the hospital. I saw parents running here and there to know whether their child is injured in the accident or not. As we were not clear at that moment how many children were there in the bus or their names, we couldn’t give any details to the parents. It was awful situation. Even the children didn’t have any ID card,”Akilesh Kumar, a parent and also a senior staff in the Nizwa hospital, who was coordinated the rescue efforts, said.

On Friday evening, parents and teachers were allowed to have the final look at the bodies of Ruya and Deepal at the hospital.

Many of them were waiting in the hospital since the accident happened.

“How can we go when our children are fighting for life? We can’t leave the hospital. We will wait here and pray for them,” a group of parents said.

Indian embassy officials and other social workers were in Nizwa consoling the grieved parents and coordinating the repatriation process of the deceased.