Eleven people, mostly children, were killed in a fire at a school for the blind in Uganda in the early hours of Tuesday, police and a government minister said.
“The cause of the fire is currently unknown, but so far 11 deaths have been confirmed as a result of the fire, while six are in critical condition and have been hospitalized,” Ugandan Police said on Twitter.
The disaster happened around 1am (Monday 2200 GMT) at the Salama school for the blind in Mukono district, east of the capital Kampala.
Police said an investigation into the cause of the inferno had been launched and more details would be released later.
“Most of the dead are children of the school and our condolences go to the parents,” Interior Minister General Kahinda Otafiire told AFP.
He said the school was sealed off as a “crime scene” and promised there would be a full investigation.
“As a government, we will investigate the cause of the fire and if there are guilty parties, they will be arrested and the law will take its course,” he added.
– ‘He is gone’ –
Richard Muhimba, the distraught father of one of the dead children, told AFP: “No words can explain the pain I am going through.
“I visited my child on Saturday, he was in good health and will be gone in less than three days… Please give me time to process this pain,” Muhimba said before hanging up.
A friend told AFP that the child was 15 and Muhimba was the father of five children.
Salama was built by the local government in Mukono in April 1999 and is aimed at children and young adults between the ages of six and 25.
The East African nation has suffered a string of deadly school fires in recent years.
In November 2018, a suspected arson attack at a boarding school in southern Uganda killed 11 boys and severely burned another 20.
In April 2008, 18 schoolgirls burned to death along with an adult when a fire engulfed their dormitory at a primary school near the Ugandan capital.
In March 2006, at least 13 children were killed and several injured when a fire destroyed an Islamic school in western Uganda. In July of the same year, six children died in a similar fire in the East.
