Sixteen students are dead and 74 others injured after a fire ripped through a girls' boarding school in Gilgil, Kenya, about 75 miles west of Nairobi.
The fire at Utumishi Girls started in the early morning hours while students slept. Local police commander Masoud Mwinyi called it a sad and saddening situation. Search and rescue operations are ongoing, and the cause is not yet known.
Deadly fires have plagued Kenyan boarding schools in recent years, often linked to overcrowding and lax safety protocols. The school has been cordoned off; only parents are being allowed inside.