India police to question teachers in school blaze

Indian police are searching for two dozen teachers from a school in the southern town of Kumbakonam who escaped a devastating fire that killed 90 children, a district official said yesterday.

The role of the teachers during last week's fire drew criticism from residents of the little town and the media, who said they fled the cramped building, leaving behind the children, aged between six and eleven.

Twenty students were still battling for life in a hospital in Kumbakonam which remains shrouded in gloom.

Schools across the state of Tamil Nadu, where Kumbakonam is located, were closed yesterday to mourn the dead children.

District Collector J. Radhakrishnan said police wanted to question the teachers about the fire, which began in a kitchen where lunch was being cooked and then spread to the school's palm-thatched roof.

"They are being sought as witnesses to the incident, as we want to know exactly what happened," Radhakrishnan said, adding that no charges had been laid against any of the teachers. "Maybe they are avoiding the police out of fear and shock."

Police have arrested the proprietor of the Shree Krishna Primary school, his wife, who was part of the school management, and his daughter, who was the headmistress.

A contractor who supplied meals to the children under the state's lunch scheme, and the cook who prepared the meals, have also been arrested.

The state-sponsored scheme aims to provide nutritious meals to poor children and at the same offer an incentive for parents to send children to school.

But many parents in Kumbakonam said they were scared of sending their children to schools, most of which are overcrowded and lack fire extinguishers or alarms.