Chandigarh, Jul 8 (IANS): After an incident in elite Carmel Convent School in Sector 9 in which a student was killed and 16 children were injured due to falling of a heritage peepal tree on Friday, Secretary Social Welfare, Women and Child Development Nitika Pawar directed the Chandigarh Commission for Protection of Child Rights to conduct Child Safety Audit of all schools in the city.

To carry out the audit, a team comprising Social Welfare, Health, Engineering, Education, Municipal Corporation, Forest Departments, District Child Protection Unit and police is to be constituted for ensuring that the children studying in schools are provided with conducive and safe environment.

The committee will further give its suggestions and recommendations to the Department of Social Welfare Woman and Child Development and to the respective schools to take corrective measures so that no such incident occurs in the future.

The Class 10 student was killed when a 250-year-old peepal tree fell on them at the all-girls Carmel Convent School during the recess.

The about 70-feet tall tree uprooted naturally and fell on the students when they were playing and having lunch under it.

The heritage tree was protected by the administration of the Union Territory.

Expressing grief over the incident, local Member of Parliament Kirron Kher tweeted by saying, "A very heart-wrenching incident of a tree falling at Carmel Covent School Chandigarh. My condolences to the bereaved families and I pray for a speedy recovery of the injured."

Chandigarh has been experiencing moderate to heavy rains in the past one week.