At least 17 children died after a fire ripped through their school dormitory overnight in central Kenya, police said yesterday.
The blaze in Nyeri County’s Hillside Endarasha Academy broke out at about midnight, police said, engulfing rooms where the children were sleeping.
The primary school caters to about 800 pupils, aged between five and 12.
Photo: AP
“There are 17 fatalities from this incident and there are also others who were taken to hospital with serious injuries,” national police spokesperson Resila Onyango said. “The bodies recovered at the scene were burnt beyond recognition.”
Police said the average age of the victims was about nine years old.
Several others were injured, Onyango said, 16 of them seriously, and had been rushed to a nearby hospital.
“More bodies are likely to be recovered once [the] scene is fully processed,” she said.
The cause of the fire remains unknown, she said, but an investigation had been launched.
Kenyan President William Ruto expressed his condolences.
“Our thoughts are with the families of the children who have lost their lives in the fire tragedy,” he said on social media. “This is devastating news.”
He said he had instructed officials to “thoroughly investigate this horrific incident,” and promised that those responsible would be “held to account.”
The school is about 170km north of the capital, Nairobi.
Local media showed relatives gathering outside the school building, anxiously waiting in the early morning mist for updates on their children.
Kenya’s Citizen TV showed images of what appeared to be the aftermath of the blaze, with blackened corrugated iron roofing that had collapsed in on itself.
The Kenyan Red Cross said it was on the ground assisting a response team.
In a post on social media, it said it was “providing psychosocial support services to the pupils, teachers and affected families.”
“Heartbreaking news from Kenya as a school fire has caused devastation. Our thoughts are with all affected,” International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies secretary-general Jagan Chapagain said.
There have been numerous school fires in Kenya and across east Africa.
In 2016, nine students were killed by a fire at a girls’ high school in the Kibera neighborhood of Nairobi.
In 2001, 67 pupils were killed by an arson attack on their dormitory at the Kyanguli Mixed Secondary School David Mutiso in Kenya’s southern Machakos District.
Two pupils were charged with the murder, and the headmaster and deputy of the school were convicted of negligence.
In 1994, 40 children were burned alive and 47 injured in a fire that ravaged the Shauritanga Secondary School for Girls in the northern region of Kilimanjaro in Tanzania.
Seven people sustained mostly minor injuries in an airplane fire in South Korea, authorities said yesterday, with local media suggesting the blaze might have been caused by a portable battery stored in the overhead bin. The Air Busan plane, an Airbus A321, was set to fly to Hong Kong from Gimhae International Airport in southeastern Busan, but caught fire in the rear section on Tuesday night, the South Korean Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said. A total of 169 passengers and seven flight attendants and staff were evacuated down inflatable slides, it said. Authorities initially reported three injuries, but revised the number
‘BALD-FACED LIE’: The woman is accused of administering non-prescribed drugs to the one-year-old and filmed the toddler’s distress to solicit donations online A social media influencer accused of filming the torture of her baby to gain money allegedly manufactured symptoms causing the toddler to have brain surgery, a magistrate has heard. The 34-year-old Queensland woman is charged with torturing an infant and posting videos of the little girl online to build a social media following and solicit donations. A decision on her bail application in a Brisbane court was yesterday postponed after the magistrate opted to take more time before making a decision in an effort “not to be overwhelmed” by the nature of allegations “so offensive to right-thinking people.” The Sunshine Coast woman —
BORDER SERVICES: With the US-funded International Rescue Committee telling clinics to shut by tomorrow, Burmese refugees face sudden discharge from Thai hospitals Healthcare centers serving tens of thousands of refugees on the Thai-Myanmar border have been ordered shut after US President Donald Trump froze most foreign aid last week, forcing Thai officials to transport the sickest patients to other facilities. The International Rescue Committee (IRC), which funds the clinics with US support, told the facilities to shut by tomorrow, a local official and two camp committee members said. The IRC did not respond to a request for comment. Trump last week paused development assistance from the US Agency for International Development for 90 days to assess compatibility with his “America First” policy. The freeze has thrown
TESTING BAN: Satellite photos show a facility in the Chinese city of Mianyang that could aid nuclear weapons design and power generation, a US researcher said China appears to be building a large laser-ignited fusion research center in the southwestern city of Mianyang, experts at two analytical organizations said, a development that could aid nuclear weapons design and work exploring power generation. Satellite photos show four outlying “arms” that would house laser bays, and a central experiment bay that would hold a target chamber containing hydrogen isotopes the powerful lasers would fuse together, producing energy, said Decker Eveleth, a researcher at US-based independent research organization CNA Corp. It is a similar layout to the US$3.5 billion US National Ignition Facility (NIF) in northern California, which in 2022 generated
RSS