A stairway stampede at a Chinese primary school killed 10 children and injured scores when a blackout triggered panic, state media said yesterday. The accident happened on Tuesday as the children swarmed out of evening class at a school in the mainly agricultural western province of Sichuan.

The lights went out and the children panicked, China National Radio said. A local newspaper said one child shouted “a ghost is coming” and some terrified children fell down the stairs. The China News Service said 45 children had been injured. Chinese high schools, especially those in rural areas, require children to attend evening classes to help them in fiercely competitive college entrance exams. But evening classes for primary-age children are rare. A 10-year-old fifth grader was killed and 25 children were injured in a school stampede in central Hubei province in October last year.

Thirty-seven people were killed as they gathered for a Lunar New Year lantern show on an overcrowded park bridge in February last year, the worst stampede in China in recent years.