Blaze at Muslim boarding school in Yangon kills 13
Authorities blame an electrical fault for causing the incident at a mosque housing 75 children, but the religious community suspects arson
Police in Myanmar said they were investigating the head of a mosque and a Muslim teacher for possible negligence after a fire swept a religious dormitory yesterday, killing 13 children in a blaze that raised new concern over sectarian tensions.
Authorities blamed the fire on an electrical short circuit and deployed riot police to maintain calm. But some Muslims remained suspicious, saying it was set intentionally.
Myanmar has been on edge after sectarian unrest between Buddhists and Muslims erupted in the central city of Meikhtila last month, killing dozens of people and displacing more than 12,000, mostly Muslims. The violence has since spread to other towns where Buddhist mobs have torched or ransacked mosques and Muslim-owned property.
Police officer Thet Lwin said about 75 children lived in the torched compound in eastern Yangon - which encompasses a mosque, a school and a dormitory - and most were able to escape by running out of a door rescue workers knocked open. Security bars blocked most of the building's windows.
Mosque member Soe Myint said most of the children, who had been sent to the religious boarding school by their parents, were sleeping on the ground floor when the blaze began and were able to flee.
