Thiruvananthapuram: A three-member committee has been formed by the Kerala government to probe into the incident wherein a student suffered a serious head injury after being accidentally hit during a hammer throw at a junior athletics meet in Kottayam.

Former physical education director of Kerala University KK Venu, former athletics coach of Sports Authority of India MB Sathyanandan and Arjuna awardee V Diju are the memebers of the panel, a press release issued from the Minister for Sports and Youth Affairs informed on Saturday.

Apheel Johnson, who was a volunteer, was struck when one of the competitors threw the hammer, a heavy iron ball, while he was reportedly removing a javelin from one side of the stadium on Friday. His skull had cracked on impact and blood had clotted in his brain.

Though the hammer weighed only 3 kg, the impact felt would be equivalent to that of a 7kg hammer as it fell from a height of 40 metres, medical experts noted.

A plus-one student of the St Thomas Higher Secondary School, Johnson has been in the intensive care unit of the Government Medical College Hospital, Kottayam. A major three-hour surgery on his skull was conducted on Friday.