Malaysia school fire kills 23 children, teachers
KUALA LUMPUR: Twenty-three people, mostly children, were killed on Thursday when a blaze tore through a Malaysian religious school, trapped in their dormitory by metal grilles on the windows.
Pupils and teachers inside the Islamic study center in downtown Kuala Lumpur screamed for help as neighbors looked on.
Many of the bodies of the victims—who included 21 boys mostly in their teens—were found piled on top of one another, indicating there may have been a stampede as the students sought to escape the blaze which erupted before dawn.
and the blaze was out within an hour but it wreaked terrible devastation. Pictures in local blackened beds in the students’ sleeping quarters.
The accident will increase scrutiny of the religious schools known as tahfiz, where many Muslim Malays send their children to study the Koran but which are not regulated by education authorities and often operate illegally.
Norhayati Abdul Halim, who lives opposite the school, told Agence France-Presse she heard screams as the morning call to prayer rang out.
“I thought there were people “I opened the window to my house and I could see the school
the Darul Quran Ittifaqiyah school in the heart of the capital, “the
broke out, as the blaze blocked the - tory and the windows were closed Nik Azlan Nik Abdul Kadir (L), father of one of the victims comforts his wife outside the Darul Quran Ittifaqiyah religious school in Kuala Lumpur on Thursday. off with metal security grilles.
Fourteen students managed to get out, and seven are being treated in hospital.
“They escaped by breaking through a grille, and then jumping down, some of them came down Health Minister S. Subramaniam.
the blaze—one of the deadliest in Malaysia for two decades—was caused by an electrical short circuit, or a mosquito repelling device.
Controversial religious schools
Subramaniam said the bodies of 21 students and two staff members had been recovered, revising down an
He said the bodies were being had been severely burned and would take some time.
Nik Azlan Nik Abdul Kadir, hugged his sobbing wife outside the school, and said he had seen his son only the previous evening.
“He was in a jovial mood—he Agence France-Presse, adding an as he had refused to attend the school for the past fortnight.
The accident added to mounting concerns about the religious study said the school did not have the required licenses to operate.
The centers were already under heightened scrutiny after an 11- year- old boy died after allegedly being beaten last year at one of the institutions in the southern state of Johor. it
Local media reported that the recently raised concerns about - - tions since 2015.
The latest tragedy was “the consequence of the absence of enforcement, and the failure to abide by rules and regulations by the operators of the religious a political scientist who promotes Islamic reform.
Religious schools are not “above the law. One should close down schools which do not abide by the
- sia’s population of about 30 million are Muslim Malay, and the country is also home to substantial ethnic