80 Children Burnt Alive, 100 Injured In T’nadu School Inferno

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Most of those burnt alive belonged to Classes I and V, according to Thanjavur District Collector J Radhakrishan.

Seventy-five bodies have been recovered so far. About 300 children were reported to be in the nursery section on the third floor of the school.

The school is in the town of Kumbakonam, 300 kilometres south-west of the state capital Chennai.

The fire is said to have broken out in the kitchen of the school building at about 1100 local time (0530 GMT), according to initial reports.

The fire broke out in a common kitchen of the Lord Krishna Middle School and spread to a row of classes with thatched roof, where students from Class-I to Class-V were present.

An investigation into the causes of blaze has been ordered to fix responsibility.

Mani Shankar Aiyer, who represents the constituency in the Lok Sabha, will is rushing to Thanjavur to take stock of the situation.

District Collector Radhakrishan, who is personally camping at the spot along with the range DIG, said the fire has been put off and relief operations are on in full swing.

The injured have been rushed to the Government Hospital and the services of doctors from neighbouring places have been requisitioned to meet the situation, he said.

The District Collector said there were around 900 students present at the time of the mishap in the school complex, which housed a primary, middle and a high school.

He added that so far 32 students have been admitted to the Government Hospital with burns. Several others have been admitted to different private hospitals.

The District Collector said, so far 75 deaths have been confirmed.

The fire has totally razed down five classrooms and several victims have died of suffocation as the passage from the classrooms was narrow preventing their escape, police sources said.

Some teachers, who made a valiant attempt to rescue the children, were also among the deceased, they said.

This is the second major tragedy in this temple town after the death of over 60 people in a stampede during the 1992 Mahamaham Festival.

Grief-stricken parents have gathered outside the hospitals and school and senior officials have rushed to scene.

The cause of the fire is still not known and a preliminary investigation is underway.

This is the second major fire mishap in the state this year after the inferno at a marriage hall in January in which over 50 people were charred to death.

After the Srirangam fire, the state government had ordered that proper fire-fighting system be installed in all public buildings. However, the school complex lacked such a system.

Overall, this is the second major tragedy in this temple town after the death of over 60 people during the 1992 Mahamaham Festival in a stampede.

Kumbakonam is a temple town on the banks of the Cauvery river in a fertile rice-growing delta.