IPOH (THE STAR/ASIA NEWS NETWORK) - An 18-year-old Form Six student from SMK St Michael was nearly killed when a ceiling fan fell and hit his face.

"I remember hearing a single clicking sound right before it fell. I was in shock and had no idea what hit me. There was a lot of blood," Mr Sam Ming Hui told reporters at a private hospital on Wednesday (July 12).

He was taken to the hospital by his 45-year-old father, mechanic Sam Yau Seng, who said he imagined the worst when the school called him to tell him what happened to his eldest child.

Mr Sam described the 10-minute drive from his workplace to the school as "torture".

"It was only when I saw him that I realised how lucky he is to have only sustained a gash on his face. Two inches more and he would have been blind. Three inches more and he would have died," he said.

Mr Sam added that he hoped this would be a wake-up call for the school to step up the maintenance of their facilities.

Meanwhile, school principal T. Gunalan said the incident was due to a snapped bolt in the fan's mounting device.

He added that such an incident is almost unheard of.

"It would not have been detected during servicing by our electrician. This is a most unexpected and unfortunate thing to have happened to our student," he said.

Mr Gunalan, who estimated the broken fan to be a decade old, said both fans in the classroom were immediately replaced after the incident.

"The electricians have also checked the other fans at the block of classrooms. Further checks around the school will be carried out," he said after visiting Ming Hui in hospital.

He added that maintenance was not an issue at the school as its board of governors and Parent-Teacher Association provided ample funds for this purpose.