A student embraces her parent following a fire which burnt down one dormitory of Moi Girls school in Nairobi, Kenya September 2, 2017. REUTERS/Baz Ratner

NAIROBI (Reuters) - Eight Kenyan teenage schoolgirls died and 10 more were hospitalized after a fire engulfed their boarding school dormitory in Nairobi early on Saturday morning, a government official said.

The cause of the fire was not known, and the government ordered Moi Girls School closed for two weeks while it investigated, education minister Fred Matiangi told reporters when he visited the school.

“A fire broke out at the school at 2:00am in the morning in one of the dormitories,” said Matiangi. He said the school, which has nearly 1,200 students, is “one of our top schools in the country and... (one) that we are very proud of.”

A statement from his office on Saturday evening said the death toll had risen from seven to eight.

A shaken 16-year-old schoolgirl, Daniella Maina, told Reuters: “We were sleeping and a girl woke us up and said that our hostel was burning. We were helped to safety by some teachers.”

Fires have in the past claimed the lives of dozens of Kenyan boarding school students. In 2001, 58 schoolboys were killed in a dormitory fire at Kyanguli Secondary School outside Nairobi. In 2012, eight students were killed at a school in Homa Bay County in western Kenya.

Lax safety standards and poor emergency procedures have been blamed for some past fires at schools and for other tragedies such as the collapse of a residential building in Nairobi in May that killed nearly 50 people.

The Kenyan police did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment on Saturday morning. </s> NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Kenya market fire kills 15, injures 70 in Nairobi, as rescue workers search for more bodies, according to local media. </s> At least 24 students and teachers have been killed in a fire at an Islamic boarding school in Malaysia's capital, Kuala Lumpur.

The fire broke out in the early hours of Thursday morning and took firefighters an hour to extinguish the blaze.

Local police said most of the victims were boys aged between 13 and 17 and that six others are in hospital in a critical condition.

The fire broke out near the door of the boys' dormitory, trapping the victims as it was the only entrance and the windows have metal bars over them, said officials.

It is believed the cause of the blaze was believed to be a short-circuit.

Local media showed pictures of blackened bunk beds in the burned dormitory.

A resident known as Norhayati told a local television station that she saw the boys crying and screaming for help, and waving their hands out of the window when the fire broke. </s> NAIROBI, Kenya — Kenya market fire kills 15, injures 70 in Nairobi, as rescue workers search for more bodies, according to local media.

Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. </s> In Kenya, at least 15 people, including young children, died after a popular market caught fire early Thursday in the capital Nairobi.

About 70 people were said to be injured from the fire and 15 homes destroyed.

Emergency service at the St John Ambulance which gave accounts of the casualties said the blaze broke out at 2:30 a.m. and spread to apartments and several shanties before being contained around 90 minutes later. </s> ANKARA (Reuters) - Twelve people, including eleven teenagers, were killed when a fire swept through a girls dormitory in the southern Turkish province of Adana on Tuesday, officials said.

The fire, which broke out in a dormitory housing middle and high school students, may have been caused by an electrical fault, Omer Celik, a senior government official who represents the province in parliament, told broadcaster CNN Turk.

At least twenty-two other girls were injured, Celik said. Also among the dead was a woman who worked at the dormitory.

The dormitory housed impoverished girls whose families coming from nearby villages where there are no schools, Elif Dogan Turkmen, an opposition parliamentarian, told CNN Turk.

Television footage showed a blaze rising from the rooftop of a multi-storey building and teams of firefighters working to put it out. </s> Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Rescue workers and traders assess the damage after the fire at Gikomba market

At least 15 people have been killed in a fire at a market in the Kenyan capital Nairobi.

More than 70 people were injured in the blaze, which broke out in the middle of the night destroying many properties.

Gikomba is one of the largest open-air markets in the city and fires there are frequent, leading to speculation about possible arson attacks, The Standard newspaper says.

However, the cause of the current fire is not yet known.

The St John Ambulance service said the fire broke out at 02:30 local time (23:30 GMT on Wednesday) and spread to apartments and market stalls before being contained after about 90 minutes.

Image copyright SNS Image caption The pre-dawn blaze destroyed many stalls where clothes, shoes and vegetables were sold

Image copyright Reuters Image caption Riot police are at the scene where traders have gathered to view the damage

Some of the victims were burned while others inhaled poisonous fumes as they tried to salvage their property.

Hospital officials said there were four children among the dead.

Pictures from Reuters news agency showed people searching the wreckage and ash.

The injured have been rushed to different hospitals across the city.

One woman told the BBC she is still searching for her sister. "When I got to the scene, the fire had already spread to her house," said Millicent Achieng.

"She told me she was inside her flat and there was so much smoke that she couldn't move. Her child was with her."

Ms Achieng said she pleaded with the security guard to open the gate to building, but he refused - saying he had been instructed by the landlord to lock it to "keep looters out".

Image caption Millicent Achieng is desperately searching for her sister

Ms Achieng said she tried to reach her sister unsuccessfully by phone several more times.

"Now calls aren't going through," she said.

"At dawn I asked my brother to go look for her in the hospitals but he couldn't find her. We don't know if my sister is among those who were burned beyond recognition."

More about Kenya:

The market is well known for the sale of second-hand clothes, shoes and vegetables, and also has timber yards which were damaged in the blaze.

The blaze is believed to have broken out in one of the timber yards. </s> At least 15 people are dead and 70 others injured in a fire at a market in the Kenyan capital Nairobi.

Emergency service St John Ambulance said the blaze broke out early on Wednesday and spread to apartments and several shanties before being contained around 90 minutes later.

Nairobi regional co-ordinator Kangethe Thuku said the death toll had reached 15.

"About five... arrived dead in the hospital but we still have about nine bodies in the burning buildings because we want to confirm and ensure the safety of those buildings," he said.

A Reuters photographer saw bodies being brought out from a building, and pictures showed people sifting through ashen wreckage as smoke rose from the site. </s> NAIROBI (Reuters) - Nine people are feared dead and dozens have been injured after a fire broke out at a market in the Kenyan capital Nairobi, St John Ambulance said on Thursday.

“At least 9 people feared dead, 58 injured, property worth millions destroyed after a fire outbreak at Nairobi’s Gikomba market at 2AM,” it said on Twitter.

It posted pictures showing a raging fire and damage to property.

St John Ambulance said victims had been taken to the Kenyatta National Hospital.
Seven schoolgirls are killed and ten hospitalised after a fire at the Moi Girls School in Nairobi, Kenya.