AT LEAST 12 people – almost all of them pupils – have died after a fire broke out in a girls’ dormitory in Turkey’s southern province region of Adana .
The fire, which officials said was probably caused by an electrical fault, spread rapidly through the building’s wooden interior late on Tuesday, as panicked victims tried to jump from windows to safety.
Officials expressed concern that many of the dead were killed after they were unable to open a closed fire door.
They were trying to escape from the top floors of the building.
Speaking to Turkish NTV television, Adana governor Mahmut Demirtas said: “We lost 12 of our citizens in the fire. Eleven of them were schoolchildren and one was a tutor and 22 citizens were injured.”
Turkey’s private Dogan news agency said that the children killed were all girls.
Their identities have yet to be disclosed but they were said to be 14 or under. – AL JAZEERA
What a sad news, may
God give their families
the fortitude to be bear
their loss.