Several girls were feared dead after a fire broke out at a boarding school in Kenya’s Nakuru County in the early hours of Thursday, according to local media reports.
The fire reportedly started around 1:00 a.m. local time at Utumishi Girls Academy but was only reported at about 3:30 a.m., the Kenyan Red Cross said.
Local media outlets gave varying casualty figures, with some reporting that at least 10 students were killed, while Citizen TV claimed 16 girls had died and 74 others were hospitalised. However, authorities had yet to officially confirm the number of casualties as of the time of filing this report.
A spokesperson for the Kenyan Red Cross told AFP that emergency responders, ambulance crews, and support personnel had been deployed to the scene but declined to provide an official death toll.
Reports indicated that distraught parents gathered outside the school premises as authorities restricted access to the affected buildings.
Kenya has witnessed several deadly school fires over the years, particularly in boarding schools. In 2024, a dormitory fire at Hillside Endarasha Academy in Nyeri County killed 21 boys after flames engulfed the building.
