Survivors recount Ghana tree fall tragedy that killed 20

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Frank Adansi-Bonnah, a 21-year old survivor, lies in bed on March 20, 2017, a day after 20 students lost their life in an accident at the Waterfalls in Kintampo. Ghana National Fire Service spokesman Prince Billy Anaglate said the "unusual incident" happened on March 19 afternoon, when a group of high school students were swimming at the Kintampo waterfalls, a popular tourist destination in the Brong-Ahafo region. 18 students died at the scene while two others died in hospital, Anaglate said, adding that 11 more were receiving treatment, including one of the school administrators in charge of the trip.CRISTINA ALDEHUELA / AFP

People walk in front of the Waterfalls in Kintampo on March 20, 2017, where 20 students lost their life in an accident a day before. Ghana National Fire Service spokesman Prince Billy Anaglate said the "unusual incident" happened on March 19 afternoon, when a group of high school students were swimming at the Kintampo waterfalls, a popular tourist destination in the Brong-Ahafo region. 18 students died at the scene while two others died in hospital, Anaglate said, adding that 11 more were receiving treatment, including one of the school administrators in charge of the trip.CRISTINA ALDEHUELA / AFP

Frank Adansi-Bonnah sat shirtless on his bed Monday in the Kintampo Municipal Hospital in central Ghana, his lips covered in bruises and cuts, and his arm in a sling.

He was swimming with his friends on Sunday afternoon at the popular tourist destination of Kintampo Falls, when a massive tree crashed into the water, crushing everyone around him.

Eighteen students died at the picturesque spot in the Brong-Ahafo region, some 450 kilometres (281 miles) by road from the capital, Accra. Two others died later in hospital. At least 22 were injured.

“What I remember was I was struggling with the tree,” said the 21-year-old Adansi-Bonnah, who is a student at University of Energy and Natural Resources in the regional capital, Sunyani.

Dazed and disorientated, he did not know what happened to his friends but was told three other students from his university were killed in what local media have described as a freak accident.

“I’m thankful I’m alive,” he said in a quiet voice, as his concerned father looked on. The student, who suffered cuts to his head and a dislocated shoulder, is one of the lucky ones.

Nearby, Joanna Adubea watched her sleeping 16-year-old daughter Matilda Owusu Addo-Nyinah, whose neck was in a brace. She suffered spinal damage and sprained her arm.

The teenager — a student at the Wenchi Methodist Senior High School, where many of the dead were students — will be transferred to a bigger hospital that can deal with her injuries, her mother said.

– Huge gust –
Photographer Richard Asante, 50, said he was at falls when the wind started picking up. “We saw the rain coming, we ran to the shelter. Somewhere after 20 minutes we saw a severe wind coming,” he recalled.

“By that time there were many people inside the water bathing. I decided to call them to come out but because of the water falling they didn’t hear me. “All of a sudden, as we raised our heads, the big tree at the top of the river cracked and fell inside the water, onto the many people.

“We saw that there was a problem as the children were crying, some of them are struggling to come out.” Asante said he saw the students get crushed by the tree, sustaining horrific head and leg injuries.

“If I close my eyes I keep seeing what happened,” Asante said, adding in his 30 years working at the falls he had never seen a gust of wind so strong.

Alexander Sarpong, the chief inspector of Kintampo police, said the students would have had no time to react and would have been killed instantly by the impact, rather than drowned.

“It was all of a sudden, the wind just started, there was no cloud to indicate there would be rainfall. It was unexpected,” he said.

– Churning –
On Monday, the usually clear waters of the waterfall were a muddy brown and churning violently in the pool where the students had been swimming. Uprooted trees and fallen branches littered the beauty spot, which is a haven for visitors from across the country, as the authorities worked to clean up the debris.

Sarpong said police attended to the scene as quickly as they could, helping other emergency personnel and civilians pick through the damage.

“I felt sad. I didn’t know what to do, we just had to rush in to convey the injured, those we can save to the hospital and later on we conveyed the dead to the mortuary,” Sarpong said.

“I have learnt with great sadness, the unfortunate incident that occurred at Kintampo waterfalls yesterday,” Ghana’s President Nana Akufo-Addo said in a statement on Twitter posted on Monday morning.

“My deepest condolences to the families of all those affected by this unfortunate and tragic incident.”