Girl impaled on fence at Mount Maunganui College

A 14-year-old schoolgirl became impaled on a security fence at Mount Maunganui College - and was lucky not to have suffered further injury when she was freed before ambulance officers arrived.
The Year 11 student was entering the school grounds in class time, after missing her school bus from Papamoa.
She was climbing over a perimeter fence at a side entrance of the school about 11am on Friday when she slipped, piercing her calf on a sharp steel barb.
The gate shuts off an alleyway leading into Waitui Grove. The fence is about 1.8m high with a row of sharp spikes on top.
Mount Maunganui College principal Terry Collett told the Bay of Plenty Times the gate was closed during school hours and the spikes were supposed to be a deterrent to stop people climbing it.
Students in a nearby class heard her cries for help and teachers and the school nurse helped lift her off the gate.
Mr Collett said St John Ambulance officers were there within minutes and considering what had happened, her wound was not "too bad".
Mr Collett said it was the first time anyone had become impaled on the gate.
Mount Maunganui fire brigade joined Mount Maunganui St John ambulance in responding to the girl, in case cutting equipment was needed to help free the girl.
However, when they arrived she had already been removed from the fence, Mount Maunganui fire brigade station officer Peter Clark said.
"She was in a lot of pain. There was blood all over," Mr Clark said.
"She must have slipped on top and it stabbed through her leg."
Mr Clark said it was fortunate the girl's accident happened in the middle of the day as "there were plenty of people around" to help her.
"She wasn't totally stuck. I've had people stuck like that before and they just couldn't get off. I think the teachers were holding her up for a while and managed to get her off," Mr Clark said.
Mount Maunganui St John Ambulance operations team manager Gary Bishell said people should refrain from trying to remove someone who has become impaled.
"Normally if it's a deeply impaled injury we would leave it in situ [as is] or deal with it on site.
"Generally, we would not move if we think there's a possibility of doing further damage."
Mr Bishell said the girl did not appear to have suffered any further damage from being removed from the fence and was taken to Tauranga Hospital.
She was not expected to be at school today.
This month an 11-year-old boy became impaled on a steel spiked fence at his school. The boy was at Liston College in Henderson, Auckland, when he fell onto the school's perimeter fence and impaled his knee with a steel rod.
A man with a ladder took his weight as people attempted cutting the rod with a hacksaw.
Two days earlier a Te Puke woman who impaled herself on a rake had to wait until firefighters managed to cut the long rake handle down to a size so she was able to fit into an ambulance.
The rake was left in the woman's foot until she was treated at Tauranga Hospital.