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Kuala Lumpur school fire kills students and teachers | |
(35 minutes later) | |
At least 25 students and teachers have been killed in a fire at a religious school in the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur, officials say. | At least 25 students and teachers have been killed in a fire at a religious school in the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur, officials say. |
The fire at the Tahfiz Darul Quran Ittifaqiyah broke out in the early hours of the morning. | |
"The number of confirmed dead are 23 students and two wardens," Khirudin Drahman, director of the city's fire and rescue department, told the AFP news agency. | "The number of confirmed dead are 23 students and two wardens," Khirudin Drahman, director of the city's fire and rescue department, told the AFP news agency. |
Their ages were not immediately clear. | Their ages were not immediately clear. |
Such schools - where children study the Koran, usually as boarders - take children aged between five and 18. | |
The emergency official said the fire in the Jalan Datuk Keramat area could be "one of the country's worst fire disasters in the past 20 years". | |
Safety concerns | |
Images posted by local media appeared to show the entire upper room of the school, where students would have been sleeping, ablaze. | |
Distressed parents could also be seen gathering outside. | |
A number of students were also reported to have been taken to hospital, some suffering from smoke inhalation. | |
Malaysian authorities have raised concerns about safety measures at unregulated private religious schools after a series of fires. | |
Local media report there have been more than 200 such fires since 2015. | |
Prime Minister Najib Razak has tweeted his sympathies to those affected. |