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    Fire razes school dormitory in Guyana, killing at least 20 children

    GEORGETOWN, GUYANA (AP) – A nighttime fire raced through a dormitory in Guyana yesterday, killing at least 20 students and injuring several others at a boarding school catering to remote, mostly indigenous villages, authorities said.

    “This is a horrific incident. It’s tragic. It’s painful,” President Irfaan Ali said, adding that his government was mobilising all possible resources to care for the children.

    The fire broke out shortly after midnight in the dormitory building of a secondary school in the southwestern border town of Mahdia, a gold and diamond mining community about 320 kilometres south of the capital, Georgetown, the government said in a statement.

    The fire killed at least 20 students, and injured several others, six of whom were taken to the capital for treatment, the government said.

    The school serves mostly indigenous children aged 12 through 18, National Security Adviser Gerald Gouveia said. He said it was too early to speculate what might have caused the fire, adding that heavy thunderstorms in the area posed a challenge to those responding by air.

    Local newspaper Stabroek News reported that the fire broke out in a girls’ dormitory.

    Opposition lawmaker Natasha Singh-Lewis said, “We need to understand how this most horrific and deadly incident occurred and take all necessary measures to prevent such a tragedy from happening again in the future.”

    The dormitory of a secondary school is burned in Mahdia, Guyana. PHOTO: AP
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