At Least 20 Niger Preschool Children Die in School Blaze
Voice of America
NIAMEY, NIGER - At least 20 nursery-school children died in Niger on Tuesday in a fire that trapped them in straw-hut classrooms in a school in a poor neighborhood of the west African nation's capital, government officials said.
"There were 20 deaths, most of them young children," said the head of Niger's fire service, Colonel Bako Boubacar. He 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 neighborhood 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 TV screen shows a file image of North Korea's rocket launch during a news program at a bus terminal in Seoul, South Korea, May 27, 2024. FILE - Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi speaks to reporters in Colombo, July 29, 2023. FILE - A TV screen shows a report of North Korea's spy satellite into orbit with its third launch attempt this year with an image of North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un during a news program at the Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, Nov. 22, 2023.
Palestinians gather at the site of an Israeli strike on a camp for internally displaced people in Rafah on May 27, 2024. Fire rages following an Israeli strike on an area designated for displaced Palestinians, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, in this still picture taken from a video, May 26, 2024. Palestinians gather at the site of an Israeli strike on a camp for internally displaced people in Rafah on May 27, 2024. A member of the bomb squad of the Israeli police collects debris after a rocket fired by Palestinian militants struck in the Israeli city of Herzliya on May 26, 2024.