A guardian points at the spot where Jayden (right) fell. The boy was discharged after first aid. Pictures by Bhabotosh Chakraborty

A five-year-old student of Julien Day School at Ganganagar survived a three-storey fall from the institute’s terrace on Tuesday morning after he had sneaked into the roof, climbed a cot and leaned out over the short wall.

A mesh of insulated electric cables cut Jayden Dennis’s freefall and he landed on a Class IV student. The upper nursery student escaped almost without a scratch and was discharged from hospital after first aid.

“A CT scan was done. There is no internal injury,” his father Julien Dennis said. Dennis is a history teacher at Julien Day School, Kalyani.

Class IV student Mohammad Sohail, on whom Jayden fell, was sent home after first aid at Madhyamgram Municipal Hospital.

Sources said Jayden climbed the flight of stairs to the roof after keeping his bag in the first-floor classroom around 6.30am. Nobody noticed him on the stairs because students were trickling in around that time for classes.

Jayden sneaked into the terrace without any obstruction because the roof door has been removed for repairs. On the terrace, he climbed a cot placed near the wall and tried to catch the action below.

“As he leaned over the terrace wall, the small cot moved back and Jayden lost his balance and fell,” said Amal Dutta, who accompanied him to the hospital.

But electric cables slowed down his fall and he landed on the shoulders of Sohail who was walking in.

Guardians escorting children for the morning session, which starts at 7am, rushed to the two boys’ aid. Minutes later, the school authorities took them to hospital.

“Nobody noticed the boy going up. Labourers had removed the damaged door from the hinges for repairs,” a school official said.

Sources said the terrace was without a door since January 18 when the school reopened after winter break. No one had noticed this because “nobody goes there”.

The building was renovated during the December-January vacation. There was a two-week session break this month as well, but pending repairs such as replacing the roof door have not been completed.

The school promised to put collapsible gates after the accident. “The renovations will be carried out this week. There will be no class in the building till Friday. The nursery section will reopen on Monday,” principal Craig Lucas said.