Schoolboy killed in mountain fall
A 12-year-old boy from Kent has fallen to his death while trekking on a school trip in southern Austria.
Hayden Waller, a pupil at the Howard School in Rainham, died from a broken neck and severe head injuries.
Medway Council said he was hiking with three friends near Mallnitz on Monday afternoon when he lost his footing and fell 30ft (9m).
Another boy was slightly injured. Paul Morris, Hayden's head teacher, said staff and pupils were "devastated".
In a statement, he said: "I would like to send my deepest sympathies to the family and friends of Hayden Waller.
"Staff are comforting the other pupils on the trip and we are arranging for them to return home as soon as possible."
Rose Collinson, director of children's services at Medway Council, added it would play a "full part" in an investigation in to the youngster's death.
Local police said Hayden, from Wigmore, and three other boys had been trekking a short distance up the mountain from their hotel, in the southern province of Carinthia, to a viewpoint late on Monday afternoon.
They had tried to reach a hut without using the path and had ventured across an open area which became steeper and stonier.
The group decided to turn back, but Hayden and another boy fell.
One of the youngsters ran down the hillside and told a passer-by what had happened, but when emergency services and a rescue helicopter reached the scene Hayden was already dead.
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where were the teachers? did they really let these boys go out on they're own, of paths and onto stoney and rocky pathways?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/kent/7252738.stm
A 12-year-old boy from Kent has fallen to his death while trekking on a school trip in southern Austria.
Hayden Waller, a pupil at the Howard School in Rainham, died from a broken neck and severe head injuries.
Medway Council said he was hiking with three friends near Mallnitz on Monday afternoon when he lost his footing and fell 30ft (9m).
Another boy was slightly injured. Paul Morris, Hayden's head teacher, said staff and pupils were "devastated".
In a statement, he said: "I would like to send my deepest sympathies to the family and friends of Hayden Waller.
"Staff are comforting the other pupils on the trip and we are arranging for them to return home as soon as possible."
Rose Collinson, director of children's services at Medway Council, added it would play a "full part" in an investigation in to the youngster's death.
Local police said Hayden, from Wigmore, and three other boys had been trekking a short distance up the mountain from their hotel, in the southern province of Carinthia, to a viewpoint late on Monday afternoon.
They had tried to reach a hut without using the path and had ventured across an open area which became steeper and stonier.
The group decided to turn back, but Hayden and another boy fell.
One of the youngsters ran down the hillside and told a passer-by what had happened, but when emergency services and a rescue helicopter reached the scene Hayden was already dead.
------------------
where were the teachers? did they really let these boys go out on they're own, of paths and onto stoney and rocky pathways?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/kent/7252738.stm
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