Bukavu, Sept 10. (dpa/GNA) – At least 26 schoolchildren have died in a fire in Bukavu, the Congolese provincial authorities said on Thursday, adding the full extent of the disaster is not yet known.
“We believe there are more than 15 fatalities,” the governor of South Kivu province said in an initial statement. He later said 26 children were killed and 29 were injured, eight of them seriously.
The cause of the fire, which destroyed two primary schools and around 300 homes, was initially unclear.
The area where the fire broke out was densely built-up. Images from the scene showed huts made of corrugated iron that had been completely destroyed.
Residents said wood was also used as a building material. “The children suffocated or died during a mass exodus,” said Justin Muganda, who lives next to one of the schools that caught fire. He said he had taken two children who were seriously injured to hospital on his motorbike, adding that the hospital was already crowded with victims of the disaster.
The children died on the way to another hospital. The Ministry of Education said the cause of the fire had not yet been investigated.
GNA