At least 13 children were killed and several injured when a fire razed the dormitory of a school in western Uganda, police said on Friday.
The overnight Thursday blaze is suspected to have started after candle flames caught bed sheets and then spread throughout the dormitory of the Islamic Kabarole East Primary School, about 300km west of the capital, Kampala.
Kabarole District Commissioner Musana Munene said rescuers had recovered 13 bodies from the burnt-out building.
Police spokesperson Patrick Onyango said one of the children fell asleep ”before blowing off a candle, the fire caught a bed sheet and it spread out to the dormitory”.
He said up to 70 children were sleeping in the dormitory when the fire broke out, but some were rescued while others were trapped in the flames.
Doctors from the police department said they were identifying the bodies, but officials could not say how many children had been injured.
”We don’t know the exact number of those injured because some parents came in after the accident and took away their children,” Munene said.
Authorities have since closed down the school. — Sapa-AFP