17 schoolgirls killed as blaze rips through dormitory in Thailand
A fire at a school dormitory in northern Thailand has killed at least 17 girls and left several others injured or missing.
The blaze ripped through Pithakkiart Witthaya School in the Wiang Pa Pao district of Chiang Rai around 11pm on Sunday night.
The privately run school is home to girls aged between five and 13 years old, and many of them were asleep when the flames took hold.
"There were 38 students inside the dormitory when the fire broke out. Some were not yet asleep so they escaped," deputy governor of the province Arkom Sukapan told AFP.
Five girls were injured, two of them seriously, but initial fears that two more girls were missing were discounted after rescuers picked through the charred debris.
Photographs from the scene show the two-storey building completely engulfed in flames, and rooms reduced to charred shells in the aftermath.
Those in the dormitory on Sunday night were drawn mainly from the deprived local hill tribes, who live too far away to travel to school every day.
Television interviewed one girl aged around 10 who escaped with several friends.
"I woke up and saw a lot of smoke. It was dark. The fire had broken out downstairs so I called to my friends" she said, describing her flight.
Thailand is home to a patchwork of hill tribes who mainly live in the remote northern area bordering Laos and Myanmar.
Many are descendants of refugees from Myanmar or China and exist within subsistence farming communities with their own distinctive dialects and rituals.
The cause of the fire is being investigated.
News break – May 23
