(COLOMBO, LANKAPUVATH) – At least 27 people, many of them children, have been killed in a fire at a boarding school in a suburb of the Liberian capital Monrovia.
The fire is believed to have broken out in the early hours of the morning, when Koranic school students were sleeping in a building near their mosque.
Police have told the BBC they are still looking for bodies in the building, in the Paynesville area.
President George Weah has visited the scene and expressed his condolences.
Police spokesman Moses Carter told Reuters news agency that the fire was caused by an electrical problem, but investigations are continuing.