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ZHENGZHOU, March 22 (Xinhua) -- The death toll from a primary school stampede in central China's Henan Province Wednesday morning has risen to two.
As of 7 p.m., 20 others who had been injured were sent to hospital, with five in critical condition.
The principal and vice principal of the school, in Puyang County, have been suspended for investigation, the county's head of education bureau told Xinhua.
The accident occurred at about 8:30 a.m. in the No. 3 Experimental Primary School of Puyang, as students rushed to the toilet during a break.
"The students were going to have a test after the break, so many went to the toilet. Some students on the second floor fell down on the staircase causing others to lose balance and tumble down," Liu Wenhua, the school's vice principal who witnessed the accident, told Xinhua.
Rumors that a wall in the school's toilet collapsed turned out to be false, a Xinhua reporter confirmed at the scene.
The local government has set up an emergency response team to investigate.
