Police have arrested eight students who are suspected of starting a fire at Utumishi Girls’ Academy in Kenya.
A fire erupted in the early hours of Thursday while the students were asleep and the number of girls who had died from the fire is at 16.
Though investigations are on going on the cause of the fire, the CCTV cameras at the school revealed that eight pupils at the school were “persons of interest in connection with the planning and execution” of the fire.
The suspected students are in police custody awaiting more evidence related to their involvement in the arson.
According to the BBC, the eight students were among the 30 students who were brought back to school for questioning after being traced to their homes while others who had remained in the area were also tracked down and detained.
Some of the survivors recount that when the fire started, the doors of the hostels were closed from inside and they couldn’t escape as the keys of the hostels were also missing which delayed the rescue efforts.
The country’s Police commander, Masoud Mwinyi described the incident as a tragedy.
