20 students killed in fire at Guyana boarding school

(CMR) At least 20 students were killed and several others injured after fire raced through a dormitory of a boarding school in Guyana early Monday.

“This is a horrific incident. It’s tragic. It’s painful,” President Irfaan Ali said, adding that his government was mobilizing all possible resources to care for the children.

According to AP, the fire broke out at the secondary school, which caters to remote, mostly indigenous villages, in the southwestern border town of Mahdia, a gold and diamond mining community about 200 miles south of the capital, Georgetown.

The school serves mostly indigenous children aged 12 through 18, National Security Adviser Gerald Gouveia said. He said it was too early to speculate what might have caused the fire, adding that heavy thunderstorms in the area posed a challenge to those responding by air.

“It was a battle for us. The pilots were very brave, very determined,” he said.

He added that the government and emergency responders “made a gigantic effort” to save as many people as possible.

Ali said officials were contacting parents and mobilizing psychologists to help deal with those affected by the fire.

“I cannot imagine the pain right now of the parents. This is a major disaster,” the president added.

Opposition lawmaker Natasha Singh-Lewis has called for an in-depth investigation.

“We need to understand how this most horrific and deadly incident occurred and take all necessary measures to prevent such a tragedy from happening again in the future,” she said.