As many as three students of the Institute of  Management and Technology, Enugu, narrowly escaped death on Monday as the balcony of one of the female hostels collapsed on them, Punch Metro reports.

The students, who are recuperating in different hospitals in the metropolis, where they were rushed to, are from the Mass Communication Department.

A Punch Metro correspondent, who visited the HopeCare Medical Centre, located a few metres from the institution, saw one of the affected students, who gave her name as Oluchi Obetta, with a swollen face and disfigured mouth.

It was gathered that the other two students were taken to the Orthopaedic Hospital, Enugu, with one of them, identified as Amanda, suffering dislocation in the neck and waist.

Narrating the incident to Punch Metro, Oluchi, stated, “On Monday around 10am, I went to the hostel to call my coursemate, Amanda, for a lecture that we were supposed to have that morning.

“When I got to the first floor of the two-storey building, she was washing plates on the balcony. She begged me to wait for her. So, while waiting for her to finish, another student came to the balcony.

“We were discussing and all of sudden, the balcony, where my friend was washing plates, collapsed. The next thing I knew was that I found myself in this hospital. My friend, Amanda, was taken to the Orthopaedic Hospital, because I was told that she suffered dislocation in her neck and waist.”

Oluchi also told our correspondent that a delegation from the school visited her and asked that she should be transferred to the school clinic to enable the institution to take up her treatment, as it would not be responsible for her treatment at a private hospital.

She said that she declined because she was not sure that the school clinic would be able to properly handle her case.

The Public Relations Officer, IMT, Mr Mark Eze, told our correspondent on the telephone on Tuesday that there was no official report about the incident to the management.