KENYA – At least 17 students have been killed and 14 injured following a fire in an elementary school dormitory in central Kenya, while a further 70 children remain unaccounted for, authorities said Friday. The inferno occurred late Thursday at the Hillside Endarasha Academy in Kieni, in the country’s Nyeri county, Resila Onyango, a spokesperson for the Kenya National Police Service said. She added their bodies had been “burnt beyond recognition.”

“The cause of fire is unknown at this time but we will update the public when we know more,” Onyango told CNN. Government spokesperson Isaac Mwaura said in a statement Friday that the fire broke out at around midnight in the male dormitory of the mixed private boarding school, adding that more than 150 boys were in the dormitory at the time.

Kenya’s education ministry said 824 students – 402 boys and 422 girls – were enrolled in the school. It added that 156 of the boys and around 160 girls were boarders while the rest were day scholars. Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua said that 70 children are still unaccounted for. “We still have 70 kids that are unaccounted – that does not mean they are perished or they are injured. The word is that they are unaccounted for. We are praying and hoping for the best,” he said at a press conference Friday.

Gachagua said that some parents, hearing the news of the fire, came to the school to collect their children without informing school officials. “I am appealing to each and every parent who took their child from here to report… so that we know where that child is,” he said. (CNN)…[+]