The locals of Mirchaiya of Siraha district obstructed the Mirchaiya section of the East-West Highway on Sunday following the death of a 16-year-old student of Sagarmatha Higher Secondary School on Saturday.

Srijana Kumari Mahara, an eighth grader, had fallen ill on Friday after accidentally consuming chemical spirit (isopropyl alcohol) at school.

According to the police, Srijana died while undergoing treatment at the Karjanha-based Phul Kumari Mahato Memorial Hospital.

Students and the locals have demanded legal action against the school for being negligent.

The protest along the East-West Highway intensified and the police fired 12 rounds of bullets into the air and 15 shells of teargas to control the crowd, informed Deputy Superintendent of Police Hari Bahadur Wali of the Area Police Office, Mirchaiya.

Five security personnel were injured while attempting to clear the obstruction from the highway, said Wali.

On Friday, Srijana complained of period pain. A teacher at the school gave her a pain-relief tablet. Mahara picked up a bottle containing the chemical spirit, mistaking it for drinking water, and ingested the tablet.

The chemical spirit is used in the classrooms to clean whiteboards.

The school’s founder principal Pradeep Tiwari had ignored the student’s complaint of pain after consuming the chemical, and had dropped her home instead of taking her to a health facility for treatment, said Dharmendra Mahara, the victim’s father.

“The principal told us that our daughter had consumed spirit but would be fine after resting for a while,” said Mahara. “We believed him, but her condition only worsened.”

Mahara has filed a complaint at the Area Police Office demanding action against the school administration, stating that he lost his daughter due to the school's negligence.

According to Dr Shyam Kumar Shah, who treated Srijana, the victim’s lungs were already damaged when she was admitted to the hospital. Shah said the victim lost her life due to a lack of oxygen.

“The victim’s lungs had turned white, the X-ray showed,” Shah informed. “The cause for the whitening of the lungs will only be known once the forensic results come in.”

An investigation is underway to find out how a bottle containing a chemical spirit got into the hands of the victim while she was trying to drink water, said Wali.

Wali said the school has admitted that the incident occurred during school hours and the teacher, who had given the medicine to Srijana, and the school principal Tiwari, have been taken into police custody for further investigation.