Children hurt as car hits classroom

TWO PUPILS and a teacher were taken to hospital yesterday after a car went out of control and smashed into their classroom.

Seven other children, all aged 15 or 16, were treated in hospital for shock after the accident at Green Hall School in Atherton, near Wigan, Greater Manchester. One teenage boy was detained for observation.

Fourteen pupils and their teacher were in the domestic science classroom at the special-needs school when the car, driven by an elderly man, went out of control as it was reversing and crashed through the school's perimeter fence.

The school's headteacher, Tony Triska, said it was amazing that no one had been seriously injured. "We have to be grateful it was not worse than it was. Buildings can be rebuilt, bodies can't.

"We heard this dreadful noise, which at first sounded like an explosion. Miraculously we found that no one was hurt. The children and staff were absolutely wonderful."

The school has 114 pupils aged 4 to 16 with moderate learning difficulties. Parents were immediately contacted and reassured.

Wigan Borough Council said that the school would not be reopened before Thursday at the earliest.