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Fire kills over 30
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A FIRE swept through a school hostel in central Nigeria, killing at least 30 girls locked in for the night, hospital and local sources said yesterday.
The fire started late on Monday in the girl's hostel of the government secondary school at Bwal-Bwang-Gindiri, around 60 kilometres southeast of Jos, Plateau State, police said.
The hostel was burned to the ground and the girls had been kept in to prevent them from mixing with boys in a neighbouring school, they said, quoting survivors.
Some 165 girls were in the hostel when the fire broke out. The matron of the school was reported among the scores injured in the blaze who were being treated at two hospitals, the ECWA Evangelical Hospital and Jos University Teaching Hospital.
Gindiri is a renowned educational and church settlement established decades ago by Western missionaries. Schools there have a reputation for strict discipline.
On Wednesday, scores of relatives came to attempt to identify the remains but many of the victims were burned beyond recognition.
A committee of inquiry was to be set up and expected to establish the cause of the blaze and what could be done to prevent such a tragedy in future.
The state governor and deputy governor visited the school on Wednesday and declared three days of official mourning.(SD-Agencies)
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