16 kids among 38 killed in Madagascar fire

Antananarivo, July 25

A fire during a house-warming party in central Madagascar killed 38 people including 16 children as the blaze ripped through a thatched roof.

The victims were trapped inside the house in Ambalavato village of Ikalamavony district in the rural centre of the Indian Ocean island on Saturday night. The party-goers, including several relatives of the house owner, were celebrating the renovation of the house.

The blaze is believed to have started from embers of a fire that had been used earlier to cook food for the guests. Other villagers tried to rescue the people trapped inside but failed to open the door. Only one 14-year-old boy managed to escape the inferno by jumping through a window. — AFP