[Napuljun]

Head arrested over school inferno


There were limited escape routes from the school's classrooms
Police have arrested the head teacher of an Indian school after at least 80 of its pupils were killed in a fire.
Reports say Pulavar Palanichamy may be charged with negligence.

As night fell, angry crowds were still gathered outside the primary school in southern Tamil Nadu state, searching the debris with spotlights.

Earlier, parents arrived to see small, charred corpses piled up in a school room. "You will lose your mind if you see the bodies," said a local woman.

There were reported to be 200 children in the primary section of the Lord Krishna school in Kumbakonam, 300km (185 miles) south-west of state capital Madras, when the blaze broke out.

Stampede

Some reports said the fire started in a kitchen at about 1100 local time (0530 GMT) and quickly spread to the thatched roof of the school's classrooms.

The roof collapsed onto children who were struggling to escape the school's narrow corridors.


Parents are rushing in, trying to locate their children... Many of them are breaking down.

Dr P Kumar


Chaos and grief
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Reports said some children died in the stampede.

As the blaze took hold, some rescuers tried frantically to reach the top floor. Others used hoses to tackle the flames but their efforts were hampered as the water supply ran dry.

A senior fire department official told the AP news agency that local people "saved at least 80 children from the third floor before the roof came down".

Some of the rescuers tried to smash holes in the school's walls to get to the children.

District administrator J Radhakrishnan said the fire was put out within two hours.

Amid the debris were the everyday items of school life, strewn around in panic. Rubber shoes lay among lunch boxes, schoolbags and toppled chairs.

Kumbakonam's state-run hospital was overwhelmed.


"There is absolute chaos in the hospital. Parents are rushing in, trying to locate their children," Dr P Kumar told BBC News Online from the casualty ward.

"Many of them are breaking down and wailing, especially as many of the bodies are burned beyond recognition."

Others collapsed as they heard the names of the dead read out over the hospital microphone.


Most of the victims were said to be girls, although some of the bodies were unidentifiable. It was not certain whether any teachers were among the dead.

Officials were reported to be discussing sending some survivors to Madras for treatment, as the local facilities could not cope with so many burns victims.

In the hours after the tragedy, police arrested the head of the school.

After visiting the scene, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalitha Jayram called for charges against the school management and district authorities, accusing them of "criminal negligence".

INDIAN FIRE DISASTERS
Feb 2004: Six die in a fire at India's Sriharikota space centre on an island off Andhra Pradesh state
Jan 2004: A fire at a wedding hall in Tamil Nadu state kills 46
May 2003: A blaze on an express train in India's Punjab state kills 38
May 2003: A factory fire in Ludhiana, in Punjab state, kills 12
Nov 2002: A passenger bus catches fire in Madhya Pradesh, killing 21
Dec 1995: About 400 die in a school fire in Haryana state
She said it was illegal to have a thatched roof. All school buildings in the state would now be inspected, she added.


Correspondents say some of India's schools are in a desperately poor state, with many lacking even basic firefighting equipment.

India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and President Abdul Kalam sent their condolences to the victims' parents.

The Pope's spokesman said he was "very shocked" at the tragedy.

Kumbakonam is a temple town on the banks of the Cauvery river in a fertile rice-growing delta.

The fire is the second major blaze in Tamil Nadu this year.

At least 46 people were killed in an inferno that swept through a marriage hall in the temple town of Srirangam in January.

After a public outcry, authorities ordered the installation of proper fire safety systems in public buildings, an order which observers say has yet to be fully implemented.

I do not think that the headmaster of the school should be charged with mishandling security, but the government is not concetrating its budget enough on education and security. It is so stupid that in such cases, that, disasters must happen first before they are tried to be prevented from happening.