A 9-year-old girl died and another girl suffered serious injury to the head after a concrete pole fell at a municipal elementary school in Oya, Hyogo Prefecture, Friday afternoon, police said.
Maho Nishimura, a third-grader at the school, was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital, police said.
Nishimura and Misato Matsubara, 9, who suffered a head injury, were struck by the broken concrete pole, 20 cm in diameter, that supported a large plastic net placed to prevent balls from going out of the yard, police said.
The girls were attending a community sports meeting held at the school ground, police said, adding that they are trying to determine why the pole was broken.