| |
 |
At
least 75 students of primary classes and some teachers
were charred to death and over 30 received grievous burns
when a fire tore through their school in Kumbakonam town of Tamil Nadu's Thanjavur district today.
While most of the children died on-the-spot and were charred beyond recognition,
some others succumbed to injuries in the hospital.
The fire, which is believed to have started from the kitchen when the noon
meal for nursery children was being prepared, soon spread to a row of thatched
roof classrooms where students from class one to class five were present, police
and eyewitnesses said.
Five class rooms on the third floor of the Krishna Middle school were
gutted in the fire that broke out at 11 AM.
Around 900 students were present in the complex housing primary, middle and
high schools.
While the high school and primary school students escaped on noticing the
fire, the primary school children got trapped as the thatched roof collapsed
on them making their movement difficult. Some teachers who tried to rescue
the children also died.
The injured were admitted to government and some private hospitals where
their condition was stated to be serious.
District Magistrate J Radhakrishnan, who was on the spot supervising the rescue
and relief operations, told PTI that the fire completely destroyed five classrooms.
Some of the victims also died of suffocation as the exit passage was narrow,
he said.
source: IndiaExpress Bureau
|
 |
