TWO teenagers who crashed through a skylight in a school roof are lucky to be alive, say police.

Carrie Hamilton, 15, and Sean Kouvilirja, 14, were retrieving tennis balls from the roof when they plunged 15ft into a science laboratory.

Police officers feared the worst when they climbed up a drainpipe and peered through the shattered skylight.

The two friends were lying motionless on the classroom floor at the Holy Family RC School at Carlton, near Selby.

Carrie, who suffered spinal and head injuries, was surrounded by pools of blood.

She was taken to hospital where scans and X-rays revealed no permanent damage and she was discharged three days later.

Sean, who had a suspected broken arm and collarbone, was also allowed home after treatment.

Police said the pair could have lain injured in the classroom until the next morning but for Carrie's brother, Jason, 14, who was on the roof with them and raised the alarm.

The accident was a chilling echo of a recent incident when a teenager was critically injured after crashing through a skylight while skateboarding on a school roof near Catterick.

Updated: 11:18 Friday, April 26, 2002