LIBERIA: FIRE KILLS AT LEAST 27 STUDENTS NEAR MONROVIA

PAYNESVILLE, Liberia

Police in Liberia say a fire at a Quranic school east of the capital, Monrovia, has killed at least 27 people and many are thought to be children.

Men lay bodies on plastic sheeting as they are prepared for burial in Paynesville on Wednesday 

Police spokesman, Moses Carter, said Wednesday that the fire around midnight gutted a dormitory and school building where students slept about 7 miles (11 kilometers) east of Monrovia.

He says only the imam, their teacher and two students managed to escape. 

The fire around midnight gutted a dormitory and school building where students slept about 7 miles (11 kilometres) east of Monrovia, police spokesman Moses Carter said. Only the imam and two students escaped, he said. The cause of the fire was under investigation.

The cause of the fire is under investigation.

Hundreds of grief-stricken people stood in shock as ambulances took away the bodies. Others wailed and wept as police pushed back a curious, surging crowd.

The president of the West African nation, George Weah, visited the scene and was set to attend the victims' funeral at a Monrovia mosque before burial later in the day, said spokesman Isaac Solo Kelgbeh.

Rescuers in white masks and surgical gloves carried the children's bodies in bags from the burned-out building as crowds of people and relatives crushed together outside. 

Parents at the scene wailed and wept as police fought a surging crowd to make way for ambulances taking away the bodies.

Pastor Emmanuel Herbert of a nearby church, Fire World Pentecostal Assembly, told The Associated Press that he and his congregation woke up to sounds of the fire and called for help.

"When I turned around to look, the entire place was red. When I looked through the window, I saw the whole place blazing with fire," he said.

The fire was so strong there was no way to enter the buildings, the pastor said.