They started their journey together on a whirlwind journey, bound by friendship and shared moments of joy. But they returned in nine ambulances, lifeless, leaving an entire village grappling with an overwhelming sense of loss.
The premises of a state-run school in Pang village here turned into a place of communal mourning on Saturday as the bodies of 9 people – teachers, non-teaching staff and their relatives associated with the Palliparamba Government Primary School – were brought back after a fatal road accident in neighboring Tamil Nadu on Friday.
The convoy of ambulances, which left Pollachi after the autopsy procedures concluded in the early hours of the morning, reached Ambalaparambu Government Secondary School in the morning.
The bodies were placed one by one in the school compound so that the public could pay their last respects.
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A large number of people gathered on the campus – tearful students, worried parents, distraught colleagues and villagers with long-standing close ties to the victims.
Many people collapsed upon seeing the bodies, some fainting and others crying intensely, reflecting the depth of the tragedy that shook them.
“Now there are only three of us left in the teachers’ room,” said one teacher, struggling to cope with the loss.
Another colleague recalled how she was almost part of the trip.
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“We were supposed to go too, but we dropped the plan for some reasons,” the woman told a TV channel.
Local villagers said the school community functions as a close-knit family. “We were all like one family,” said a neighbor, watching the proceedings with eyes full of tears.
According to the sources, a group of 13 individuals, including teachers, faculty members, their relatives and a driver, set off on Friday morning.
They added that nine of them died in the accident, while the other four, who were seriously injured, are receiving treatment in hospitals in the neighboring state.
The trip, which was not officially organized by the school, included a visit to the Athirappilly Falls before the group headed towards Valparai in the Coimbatore district of Tamil Nadu, where the accident occurred.
Post-mortem examinations of all nine victims were completed at a government hospital in Pollachi between midnight and 4 a.m., after which the bodies were transported back to Malappuram.
Several leaders, including state Public Education Minister V Sivankoti, MLA AP Anil Kumar and Manjalamkuzhi Ali, visited the school to pay their respects.
The bodies were then taken to their homes for the last rites.
Speaking to reporters here, Sivankutty said the tragedy dealt a heavy blow to the school, as most of its teaching staff were among the victims.
He said the government would take urgent steps to ensure sufficient appointments before school reopens after the summer break in June.
The minister also said that counseling support would be provided to the students affected by the incident and assured that the families of the deceased would receive financial assistance from the Prime Minister’s Disaster Relief Fund.
He added that a detailed investigation will be conducted into the incident and appropriate measures will be taken to help prevent similar incidents in the future.
