BBC News
Published
image captionThe remains of desks are all that is left from the straw-hut classrooms
At least 20 children have died after they became trapped in a fire at a school in Niger s capital, Niamey.
It started late on Tuesday afternoon when the children were in lessons, many in straw-hut classrooms.
The flames blocked the school gate, so most pupils had to escape over a wall, said a teacher s union official quoted by Reuters.
Most of those who did not manage to escape were attending the school s nursery, officials say.
The government-run junior and pre-school in the Pays Bas district of the city had a mixture of brick and straw-hut classrooms, BBC Hausa s Tchima Illa Issoufou reports from Niamey.
Niger
Niamey
Tchima-illa-issoufou
Sidi-mohamed
Mounkaila-halidou
Bas-primary-school-on
Reuters
Pays-bas
Pays-bas-primary-school
நைஜர்
சிடி-மொஹாமெட்
ராய்ட்டர்ஸ்