At least five children were killed today when a suspected gas explosion caused a dormitory to collapse at a boarding school in central Turkey.
Five other pupils were trapped in the rubble of the school in Kayseri, 480 miles southeast of Istanbul. At least 16 others were pulled to safety.
The town's mayor said a gas canister had probably exploded in the kitchen as the children slept. Thirteen pupils were being treated for injuries.
Turkish TV footage showed rescuers using heavy equipment to dig through the wreckage.
A giant slab of concrete partially covered two pupils and another was seen wandering around the rubble with a gash on his head.
"Everyone was sleeping. Then they started screaming," one injured pupil said at a local hospital.
Officials said the children were staying at the dormitory as they took part in a course on how to read and recite the Koran.
In May, a dormitory in eastern Turkey collapsed in a magnitude 6.4 earthquake, killing 84 students. Critics blamed the building's collapse on shoddy construction.
AP