At least 14 children killed in DR Congo school fire stampede

A stampede after a fire broke out in a school in the eastern DR Congo city of Bukavu has killed at least 14 children, local and health sources said on Thursday.

A blaze of “unknown” origins began near a school in the Bagira district on the city’s northern outskirts early on Thursday “while the children were in the middle of class”, local leader Patrice Buduge told AFP.

“This was followed by a violent stampede that forced students to trample over one another or look for a dangerous way out; many of them fainted and others lost consciousness,” he said.

He said the provisional toll was “more than 500 homes burned and 27 deaths”.

AFP was not able to independently verify the toll with other official sources.

“We received around 50 students, including several teachers, in a critical state of asphyxia,” said Christophe Zigashane, a nurse in a neighbouring clinic.

“Among them, 10 were dead and four others died at the scene. That makes a total of 14 deaths, all under 10 years old,” he said.

He said that 27 people including two teachers had been transferred in a critical state to other hospitals in the city.

Large columns of smoke were still visible around the site of the fire at midday on Thursday, an AFP correspondent saw.

The fire devastated a wide, densely built area on a hillside where residents were making their way through the debris of charred houses, strewn with crumpled sheets of metal.

Bukavu, the capital of South Kivu province, is controlled by the M23 anti-governmental group, which has seized large swathes of eastern DRC.

The city lies on the shores of Lake Kivu and is known for its wooden plank houses built on hillsides.