A GROUP of 30 students from a Co Donegal school got trapped in a lift at an ice-skating rink in France where they are on an Easter holiday.
The students, aged 15-17 , from Finn Valley College in Stranorlar, Co Donegal, had to be eventually freed by firemen.
One of the students had to be hospitalised because of heat exhaustion following the incident.
They became claustrophobic after getting stuck in the lift coming down from the fifth floor of the huge ice-skating complex in Nice. It took firemen more than half an hour to arrive on the scene and begin to free the students.
Last night, school principal Frank Dooley said the students became anxious and he could not understand why it took so long for the lift to be opened.
“It took the fire department a half an hour to come . . . Of course you had a lot of claustrophobia in the lift.”
Mr Dooley thanked staff at the centre whom he said kept in contact with the students throughout their ordeal by internal video camera and also verbally.
He paid tribute to Lisa Herron, the young teacher caught in the lift with the students throughout their ordeal, which happened at about 11pm.