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BEIJING, Friday (AFP) Five students at a middle school in southwest China have been crushed to death during a rush to get down a flight of stairs at the end of lessons, local officials said Friday.

The tragedy at the Zhongduo Middle School in Youyang count of Chongqing municipality, comes just a month after 21 puils died and 52 were injured in another school staircase crush in north China's Inner Mongolia region.

The latest accident happened Thursday evening when hundreds of pupils who had been staying late at the school rushed out of the school, a Youyang county official told AFP.

The students, aged in their teens, were eager to go home after the study session, and pushed and shoved down a flight of stairs, crushing their classmates on the bottom, he said.

In all, 700 pupils were trying to leave via the staircase, the Congqing Morning Post newspaper reported.

Five pupils were crushed to death, with 34 others hurt, including one seriously, the official added.

However a doctor at the county hospital said 66 students were hospitalized, mostly for minor injuries, with one suffering serious injuries.

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