Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Monday, April 07, 2003
21 Students, 1 Teacher Killed in Russian School Fire
Twenty-one students and one teacher were killed on Monday while 10 others injured in a school fire in Russia's northern Siberian republic of Yakutia, Russian emergencies' ministry said.
Twenty-one students and one teacher were killed on Monday while 10 others injured in a school fire in Russia's northern Siberian republic of Yakutia, Russian emergencies' ministry said.
The injured have been rushed to a local hospital, Interfax reported, citing Marina Ryklina, an official from the emergencies' ministry.
The fire broke out at the beginning of the school day in a two-storey wooden building in the village of Sydybal in Yakutia, about 4,800 kilometers east of Moscow.
According to the report, the students were roughly between the age of 11 and 17. Itar-Tass also said that when fire trucks came from the district center, around 29 kilometers from the village, it was too late to put out the fire and to rescue people.
A government commission has flown to the village for further investigation.