Parents mourn after Indian school fire kills 90

Parents broke down in tears as the bodies of their children were buried or cremated yesterday after a fire in an Indian school killed 90 children.

"He is gone, he is gone forever," wailed Vijaya as she said farewell to her eight-year-old son Vadivelu, who died of his burns in hospital on Friday. "I had prepared his afternoon meal for him, but he will never eat it."

At least 15 people gathered outside her house to console Vijaya and her husband Sekhar, a manual labourer. The scene was repeated in dozens of locations across the little town of Kumbakonam, which lies in a fertile district known as the rice bowl of the southern state of Tamil Nadu.

The bodies of 75 children were recovered from the Sri Krishna school after the fire on Friday. Another 15 children, most just eight or 10 years old, died of their burns in hospital, senior district official J. Radhakrishnan told reporters.

Doctors said another 19 children were in hospital with burns, some of them severe.

Radhakrishnan said five people, including the school principal and the cook, were arrested. Authorities were also investigating why no teachers were killed or injured in the fire.

The blaze began in a kitchen where Friday's lunch was being prepared before spreading to the school's palm-thatched roof.

Many of the children were trapped in a large classroom which had only one exit, dying after the blazing roof collapsed on top of them and blocked their way out.

Others died of suffocation as they tried to escape down the narrow staircases.

"The kids were too small to break down the wall or think of any way out," said Balu, a 35-year-old father of two, whose children were being taught on another floor and escaped unhurt.

"The government is to blame as there has been no inspection of this school for at least two to three years. If someone had inspected the facilities, maybe they might have pointed it out to the school management, and this might have been avoided."

Newspapers criticised the lack of adequate exits and fire extinguishers as well as the fact that cooking was being carried out under a thatched roof.

The papers also turned on the teachers, none of whom were killed, for leaving the building while some of their charges were still inside. In their defence, officials said more than 700 children had escaped the overcrowded school unhurt, and witnesses said the fire had spread frighteningly fast.

The state government gave 100,000 rupees ($2,175) in compensation to the parents of each victim. In New Delhi Prime Minister Manmohan Singh ordered an investigation.

"Children are the most precious asset of our nation and the loss of so many innocent lives is a matter of deepest sorrow," he said. Ruling party politician Rahul Gandhi visited the hospital and spoke to distraught parents on Saturday while his mother, party leader Sonia Gandhi, was expected today.

The Perumandi cremation and burial ground in the town stayed open overnight as attendants buried or burned the bodies of dozens of children killed in the blaze.