Groningen University investigates initiation ritual by fire

Tuesday 20 April 2010

Groningen University has started an investigation into an initiation ritual at a student fraternity which left a student with serious burns, according to media reports.

'This was an incredibly stupid act by a number of individuals. We want to know exactly how this happened,' a spokesman told the Telegraaf.

The incident happened some 10 days ago and the student is still seriously ill in hospital.

According to police reports quoted in the Volkskrant, four students were undergoing the ritual on a small island near the lakeside village of Giethoorn.

One student, dressed in a Sinterklaas outfit, asked the others to set him on fire. Another threw inflammable liquid over the suit and lit it. The victim then turned into a 'fire ball' and jumped into the lake to put out the flames. It was not until some 40 hours later that his wounds were treated.

The student himself refused to report the incident but his parents have done so, the Volkskrant reports.

Initiation rituals are common to join Dutch student societies and often hit the headlines. In 1997 a student in Groningen died after drinking an entire bottle of jenever, a type of Dutch gin. In 2005 a student was forced to drink so much water he ended up in a coma.

© DutchNews.nl

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