Parents react at a girls' school following a fire in Nakuru County, Kenya, on Thursday. MONICAH MWANGI/REUTERS
Inside the compound of Utumishi Girls Academy in Gilgil, Nakuru County, grief settled heavily as distraught parents streamed through the school gates after receiving midnight phone calls about a dormitory fire that had torn through the public senior school overnight.
For many families, Thursday became a day of agony and heartbreak after the blaze killed 16 students and injured dozens more in one of Kenya's deadliest school fire tragedies in recent years.
The fire broke out early on Thursday morning in a dormitory on the first floor of the girls' boarding school, where most students are teenagers, triggering panic as students scrambled to escape the flames, according to local authorities.
The exact causes of the fire are under investigation, as authorities are making their best efforts to treat the seriously injured students.
