Landslide damages school buildings in Nan, students relocated

NAN - An expanding landslide has forced the partial closure of a mountainside school, causing large cracks in a kindergarten building, a canteen, a shop and a swimming pool.

Nan govenor Chainarong Wongyai on Monday ordered the closure of the damaged area at Ban Doi Tiew schoo in tambon Sri Phum of Tha Wang Pha district. 

The school has 289 pupils in classes from kindergarten to grade 9 level.

The landslide is immediately below the school and has expanded from just two metres across to about 100m, and the erosion has caused cracks in two-floor kindergarten building, an 80-seat canteen, a shop and a swimming pool at the school. The affected zones were cordoned off.

Engineers inspected the school, which stands on an erosion-prone mountain, and agreed the damaged buildings were unsafe.

Officials were arranging alternative, temporary premises for the displaced students. The relocation of the school was the long-term solution, according to the Nan office of the Public Relations Department.