There seems to be some confusion around what happened in the moments before a BMW ploughed through a crowd of pupils at Allen Glen High School in Roodepoort, Jozi.

The video began to do the rounds on social media yesterday, with some reports claiming that a brawl outside the school had preceded the footage.

The Citizen reports that “the scuffle was allegedly incited by some matric boys who were rumoured to be behind a banned activity called ’40 days’ which is an event that sees the seniors ‘celebrating’ their last days at the school”.

The celebrations involve “hurling substances” at the school’s junior pupils:

A source at the school said that during break the matric pupils started throwing eggs and condoms filled with urine and fish paste at the Grade 11 pupils. He said this escalated after school as the matrics continued to hurl items, including flour and eggs, at everyone. The targeted pupils retaliated and a fight that quickly got out of control ensued. Some of the pupils were run over by an angry motorist in the chaos.

I can handle the eggs, and maybe even the urine, but if you come near me with fish paste we’re going to have problems.

Another source at the school says that the driver of the BMW was angry because the road had been blocked by pupils, who bashed his vehicle.

Here’s the footage doing the rounds, filmed on Tuesday afternoon, which may be disturbing to some:

Police spokesperson Captain Balan Muthan spoke to News24 after a case of reckless and negligent driving was opened at the Honeydew police station:

“No arrests have been made so far, we need to first investigate the matter thoroughly to find out more about what happened that afternoon.”

That’s proving tricky, according to Warren McKrill, chairman of the school governing body:

“We are not sure at this point what happened that caused the driver to behave in that manner; that is something the police are investigating. At this stage no injuries of any pupils were reported to us.”

McKrill also said it was suggested on social media that matric pupils were celebrating “40 days” (40 days until their final exams).

However, he said: “This is not true. [There were] not only matric pupils outside the school. There were various grades of students who were outside at the time it happened and there are 32 days left till final exams, not 40.”

McKrill stated that the owner of the car involved had phoned and visited the school yesterday, and also given his version of events to the police.

[sources:citizen&new24]