At least 16 students were killed and scores were injured in the early hours of Thursday after fire ripped through a boarding school dorm in Kenya's Rift Valley region. File photo by Justin Lane/EPA-EFE
May 28 (UPI) -- At least 16 students were killed and 74 were injured after fire tore through a girls' boarding school in Kenya in the early hours of Thursday.
The blaze broke out as students were sleeping, engulfing the dorm block at the school in Gilgil, 77 miles northwest of the capital Nairobi, police and the Kenya Red Cross said.
A rescue and recovery operation was still underway amid efforts to account for all the students who were in the accommodation building -- thought to be about 220.
"It is a sad and distressing situation. As we speak, our officers are combing the area because some students fled in shock and fear during the night," said police commander Masoud Mwinyi.
