The fire that claimed the lives of 19 children – 18 students and a small boy – on Sunday at a school dormitory in Guyana was started by a teenage girl who was angry that her mobile phone was taken from her, a government source told AFP on Tuesday. Speaking on condition of anonymity, do not give your name.

“A student is suspected of causing a devastating fire due to the confiscation of her mobile phone,” police also said Tuesday in a press release issued about a school fire in Mahdia, a landlocked mining town in the small English-speaking country. , South America.

A government source specified that the young woman had confirmed her guilt.

Dormitory officials “confiscated her mobile phone and that same night she threatened to set fire to the building and be heard by the whole world,” the official said.

The minor, who is being treated in a hospital under police protection, went into the bathroom, sprayed the shower curtain with insecticide and set fire to it with a match, the source continued, citing classmates who gave an identical version of events in their testimony.

“According to the students, they were sleeping when they were awakened by screams. They saw fire and smoke in the bathroom area, which quickly spread throughout the building, ”the police said in a text.

Despite the desperate efforts of the girl’s classmates to put out the fire, the flames spread very quickly, completely destroying the building, which was partially wooden – in particular, it had a wooden roof.

Pupils “are not allowed to bring mobile phones with them,” but school officials “discovered that the girl had a phone” and took “photos,” a government source explained.

The tragedy was aggravated by the fact that the dormitory manager “panicked” and could not find the key to the door of the building, on the windows of which bars were installed. The door was locked every night at 9 p.m., the same source added.

Among the 19 victims was the young son of the head of the hostel.

The men broke down the door so they could save you, survived among them is the girl who set the fire.

According to the same source, firefighters and police arrived at the scene 25 minutes after the fire started.

Guinea police chief Clifton Hicken told the press the previous Monday that the first evidence from the investigation indicated that the fire was due to “malicious acts.”

Thirteen girls and a small boy died on the spot, and five more girls died from their injuries at a hospital in the Mahdia district. The authorities have declared three days of national mourning.

Source: RES-IPE