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 abandoned piano in a schoolyard fell on her.

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.

According to reports, 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 children were rushed to a nearby medical facility where McKalia was pronounced dead and the little boy treated and released.

Courtney Thorpe, chairman of the school board, said that 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.

Pall of gloom

When The Gleaner 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," said a little girl.

"It happened when we were outside playing at lunchtime."

The matter, which is being investigated by the Montego Bay police, has left a pall of gloom over the Tucker-Irwin community.

"Me belly burn me when I heard because I have a child going to the school," said a resident of the community.

"It is just a sad, unfortunate accident and we will just have to rally around the bereaved parents."