TRAG!C: How 20 children were killed in Niger school fire | READ DETAILS
chuks oti
Apr 14, 2021
Some 20 children died Tuesday after several classrooms caught fire at a school in Niger's capital Niamey, the fire service said.
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"Twenty-one classrooms in straw huts caught fire. Around 20 children were trapped in the blaze,ÔÇØ fire service commander Sidi Mohamed said on public television.
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"Rescuers set off rapidly and the fire was put out... but the power of the fire was enormous,ÔÇØ he added. "The children were not able to escape.ÔÇØ
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Public television, citing witnesses, said the fire had broken out at around 4.00 pm (1500 GMT), "when the victims were in classÔÇØ.
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The cause of the fire was not yet known.
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Prime Minister Ouhoumoudou Mahamadou travelled to the scene of the tragedy, on the edge of the capital, to offer his condolences to the children's parents.
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Niger ranks as the poorest country in the world under the UN's 189-nation Human Development Index.
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Authorities in the Sahel country have built thousands of straw huts to serve as classrooms, with children sometimes seated on the floor.
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Fires in these buildings are fairly common due to the flammable materials used, but such accidents have rarely proved fatal.
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