2023-05-23 00:02:05
After a fire in a school dormitory in Guyana, South America, that killed 19, the police do not rule out arson. Initial investigations suggested the fire “was set maliciously,” Police Commissioner Clifton Hicken said Monday at a news conference with President Irfaan Ali. The investigation would continue, but there was no evidence of suspects, Hicken added.
According to government sources, the fire broke out on Sunday evening in the girls’ dormitory of a high school in the mining town of Mahdia in the center of the country. Girls between the ages of 11 and 17 slept in the room, a rescue worker said. The building burned down completely.
The fire department said 14 young people died on site and five others succumbed to their injuries in hospital. At the time of the accident, 63 schoolgirls were in the building. At first, at least 20 people were said to have died.
More than a dozen children were treated at the local hospital, and six seriously injured were flown to the capital, Georgetown, for treatment.
Guyana is the only English speaking country in South America. The former British colony bordering on Brazil, Venezuela and Suriname has only 870,000 inhabitants and was previously one of the poorest countries on the continent. After discovering huge oil fields off the coast, Guyana’s government is now hoping for an oil boom.
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