Western Bureau

Tragedy struck at a basic school in the Tucker/Irwin area of St James yesterday afternoon when a little girl died after an old piano, which was left abandoned in the schoolyard, fell on her, causing serious head injuries.

Dead is five-year-old McKalia Wallace, of Tucker/Irwin, who was a grade-two student at the Wesleyan Holiness-operated Tucker/Irwin Basic School.

Reports say during the school's lunch break, a group of children were playing around the old piano when it fell over, pinning McKalia and a little boy underneath. The two children were rushed to a nearby medical facility where McKalia was pronounced dead and the little boy treated and released.

Playing around the piano

"It is a most unfortunate incident, the children were playing around the piano and somehow it fell over on the two children," said Courtney Thorpe, the chairman of the school board. "They were rushed off to get medical attention but unfortunately McKalia died."

Thorpe said following the incident, he had dialogue with the parents of the dead child and that the school family was doing its best to comfort them.

When THE WEEKEND STAR visited the school, the old piano, with dried blood splattered beside it, was still on the pavement where it fell. A pair of shoes was still pinned under one side of its dilapidated wooden frame. "They were rocking it (the piano) when it fell over," a little girl said. "It happened when we were outside playing at lunchtime."