By IDDRIS YOJAUF –
Officials in Niger Republic have explained how 20 nursery school children died on Tuesday in a fire that trapped them in straw-hut classrooms.
According to the country’s head of fire service, Col. Bako Boubacar, “there were 20 deaths, most of them young children.”
While Boubacar said the origin of the fire in Niamey was unknown, an official of a Niger’s teachers union said the school in the popular Pays Bas neighbourhood had around 800 students, including children in the nursery section.
“The fire apparently started around the school gate. Without an emergency exit, many were trapped and students were forced to scale the wall to escape.
”Those that died were mostly children in the preschool,” Mounkaila Halidou said.
A report by the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), quoted an official of the Nigerien governments as saying that authorities had arrived at the scene and launched an investigation.