Schoolgirl seriously hurt in walkway fall in Cork

A teenage schoolgirl is being treated in hospital after she fell from a pedestrian walkway in Cork yesterday morning.

The girl, 13, fell from a footbridge at the rear of the Mahon Point retail park shortly after 8am. It is believed she was on her way to school when the incident happened.

At least three units of the Cork City Fire Brigade as well as a HSE ambulance treated the girl at the scene and she was brought to Cork University Hospital. She was described as having serious but non-life threatening injuries.

Gardaí are investigating how the girl was injured but suggested the case was not being treated as suspicious and that there was no indication of any third-party involvement.

The girl, understood to be from nearby Blackrock, had been walking along the old railway line that goes from Skehard Rd and, via a separate pedestrian walkway, over the N40 dual carriageway.

The walkway is described as being popular with walkers and cyclists and it was suggested yesterday that a passer-by may have raised the alarm when the girl fell. It is understood gardaí are looking at the possibility that the girl may have lost her balance and slipped.

She is understood to have landed on an embankment and there were no indications of any structural collapse or issues with the walkway.