At least 17 children died after a fire ripped through their primary school dormitory overnight in central Kenya, police said Friday.
The blaze in Nyeri County’s Hillside Endarasha Academy broke out at around midnight, police said, engulfing rooms where the children were sleeping.
The primary school caters to some 800 pupils, aged between roughly five and 12.
National police spokesperson Resila Onyango said. “There are 17 fatalities from this incident and there are also others who were taken to hospital with serious injuries,”
Police said the average age of the victims was around nine years old.
Several others were injured, Onyango said, 16 of them seriously, and had been rushed to a nearby hospital.
The cause of the fire remains unknown, she said, but an investigation had been launched.
The school is located around 170 kilometers north of the capital Nairobi, in Nyeri county.
The Kenyan Red Cross said it was on the ground assisting a multi-agency response team.
