Grate Collapse in Girls Yeshiva

At least 36 children have been injured at a school in the Prospect Park South section of Brooklyn, at 11 am Friday morning.

Children were seen being loaded onto stretchers outside the Yeshiva Shaare Torah school on Ocean Parkway. Hatzolah responded with numerous ambulances.

The children were from the 6th, 7th and 8th grades of the Yeshiva who were lined up on a grate for a photo shoot, which collapsed. They fell 12 feet to the ground.

Fire officials say all but 5 of the students were brought to area hospitals Friday morning. One girl suffered serious bone fractures, fire officials said. The other injuries were said to be minor.

Fire officials said a number of other students were being treated on the scene.

The girls were lined up for an end-of-the-year photo in front of the building and were standing on a sidewalk window well grate when it gave way.

Emergency crews went through basement windows to reach the injured students, who fell among metal pipes, the FDNY said. A temporary fence was set up around the area until the grate could be repaired.

The Buildings Department said the bolts attached to the grate were worn, causing the accident, and said crews were investigating.

The school was issued a violation for failing to maintain the structure and may be fined, but it wasn’t immediately clear how much. School officials declined to comment.

The school, an ultra-Orthodox Jewish school with about 260 students in grades one through eighth, is in the Prospect Park South area.