Eighteen girls were killed in a fire at a boarding school dormitory in northern Thailand, according to police. The victims were aged between five and 12.
The fire broke out late on Sunday in the boarding school of Thailand’s Chiang Rai district.
Local reports say there were 38 students inside the dormitory when the fire broke out. Some were not yet asleep so they escaped.
A police official said that apart from the 18 schoolgirls who died in the fire, five other girls were injured, two among them seriously.
Some more girls survived without injuries, but it is not known how many. Reports say the school is run by a local Christian charity and is home to pupils from impoverished local hill tribes in Thailand’s mountainous area.
Firefighters took three hours to extinguish the fire, and pulled survivors and bodies from the second-storey window of the wooden building.
The cause of the fire was not immediately known.
(With inputs from AP)
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