Agence France-Presse

Monday 23 May 2016 07.35 BST

Dormitory fire kills at least 17 schoolgirls in Thailand
Several more students were missing and injured after a blaze swept through the building during the night.

At least 17 schoolgirls have died after a fire swept through a dormitory in northern Thailand, a police commander said adding several others were either missing or injured.

“The fire broke out at 11pm on Sunday (local time, 1600GMT). Seventeen girls were killed and two are still missing, with five injured,” Police Colonel Prayad Singsin, Commander of Vingpatao district in Chiang Rai said.

Two of the injured were in a serious condition, he added.

The school, which belongs to a local foundation and is not government run, is home to girls aged from three to 13 years old, he said.

“There were 38 students inside the dormitory when the fire broke out. Some were not yet asleep so they escaped,” the province’s deputy governor, Arkom Sukapan, said.

“But others were asleep and could not escape, resulting in the large number of casualties.”

A second police officer from the same precinct said the school was home to pupils from impoverished local hill tribes in the mountainous area...
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/m ... chiang-rai