Senegal fire at Koranic school kills 9 children

Nine children have been killed by a fire at a Koranic school near the centre of Senegal’s capital, Dakar.Witnesses said that the blaze broke out as 45 children aged from six to 12 slept inside a single room with wooden walls and zinc roofing in the Medina district, according to the (BBC).A candle is thought to have caused the fire.Fire engines are reported to have struggled to drive down the narrow road leading to the school, hampering efforts to extinguish the blaze.Senegal’s Dakar’s mayor, Khalifa Sall said that the ramshackle development of densely-populated residential areas in the city made it impossible for the emergency services to operate effectively.Senegal’s President Macky Sall meanwhile visited the scene of the fire along with senior government officials on Monday and promised to tackle the long-standing issue of Koranic schools.