Survivors of Indian school fire battle for life

Doctors battled yesterday to save the lives of children badly burnt in a devastating school fire in southern India that killed 90 classmates.

Nearly 20 children are still in hospital in the little town of Kumbakonam which has been shrouded in gloom since Friday's blaze.

"I had two hands. God has saved one, but I have lost the other," cried a mother whose 10-year-old son died in the fire. Her 8-year-old daughter, Suzy Mary, survived.

Some children in a nearby government hospital had 30 to 50 per cent burns, district official J. Radhakrishnan said.

Authorities began counselling sessions for traumatised survivors yesterday.

Sonia Gandhi, president of the ruling Congress party, announced an aid package when she visited the town in Tamil Nadu state where she met victims' families.

"Loss of life is always a heart-breaking experience for the near and dear ones, but when it deals with the lives of children it is even more heart-breaking, even more tragic. We have to draw lessons from this tragedy," Gandhi told reporters.

She said the government had approved 10 million rupees ($217,700) in aid for victims' families and five million to set up a fire safety project near Kumbakonam.

Dozens of people marched silently through the town late on Saturday to demonstrate sympathy and press the state government to act against schools operating from makeshift premises.

People placed garlands and floral wreaths next to the entrance of the burnt shell of the Sri Krishna School where black flags hung from the charred walls.

Some walls had gaping holes, made by children trying to escape the fire and by fire officials trying to save them.

Officials said about 700 children managed to escape.

The blaze began in a kitchen where lunch was being cooked, and then spread to the school's palm-thatched roof.

Many children were trapped in a large classroom with one exit, and died after the blazing roof collapsed on top of them. Others suffocated to death as they tried to run down narrow staircases.

The school did not have fire extinguishers or a fire alarm system.

Tamil Nadu's chief minister has ordered a fire safety inspection of all schools and all those with thatched roofs will have to replace them with fireproof ones, the state's chief secretary said yesterday.

Angry residents and relatives turned on the school's teachers, accusing them of leaving some of their charges behind as they fled the building.

Police said they were looking for more than 20 teachers they wanted to question.

"What were the teachers doing? Not one of them was injured in the fire. And the school's owners. What were they doing? There was no proper way for the children to escape. This is a scandal," said Kotteeswaran, who lost his eight-year-old nephew. Four education department officials have been suspended and police have arrested three members of the family that owned the school, as well as the cook and lunch contractor.

One grieving father told how his 8-year-old son, Lakshmanan, had escaped the fire but went back for his books.

"My son had a few bruises on his leg but otherwise he was fine ... I spent the next few hours going back and forth between the hospital and school thinking everything was fine as far as my family was concerned," Selvam said.

"When I went back home at night I found my son was missing. I rushed to the school and somebody outside told me that my boy had gone back in to fetch his books."