Girl impaled on spike after fancy dress drinking

A second year Worcester student was hospitalised on Saturday after injuring herself on a spike while scaling railings by Magdalen.he accident took place last Saturday during the traditional ‘midway’ celebrations at Worcester. After being denied entry to Magdalen by its porters, the student and her friends decided to seek an alternative route into the college, and she was being helped over railings on Longwall Street when she slipped and slashed her thigh on a large spike. She was taken to the John Radcliffe Hospital by ambulance and given stitches.Sam Pritchard, a Magdalen student, witnessed the aftermath of the accident. He said, “There were all these people in costumes making a lot of noise. There’s a slightly lower fence or gate entrance to Magdalen with spikes on it that they were flooding over.“Inside Magdalen, under an archway at the entrance to my stairway there was a girl slouched, screaming, with blood on her skirt.”The Worcester midway celebrations take the form of an afternoon pub crawl in fancy dress with intermittent attempts to enter other colleges, and a formal dinner in the evening. Students dressed up in groups according to where they live in College, and costumes included characters from The Wizard of Oz, sheep, Power Rangers and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.Worcester JCR President, Maanus Jain, said, “We go around Oxford drinking in pubs in fancy dress. Occasionally we do go into other colleges but the porters are normally very good-natured. We’d been to New and the porters had asked us to leave. We never meant to cause a disturbance.“When we got to Magdalen the porters weren’t very keen on letting us in. Some people did run at them and a small group of people did try to get in another way. That’s when a girl got injured on a spike and an ambulance was called. After that we carried on.”Jain emphasised, “This was an isolated incident in what was a pretty good-humoured day.” Worcester is threatening fines for anyone who is identified as having been part of the scaling incident. Magdalen College has refused to comment.OUSU Welfare Officer, Louise Randall, said, “Most people will find that their judgement becomes worse when they are drunk …Drink in moderation and make sure accidents don’t ruin your night or put your safety at risk.”