Malaysia School Fire Leaves 24 Dead

Police and fire department work at the religious school Darul Quran Ittifaqiyah after a fire broke out in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia September 14, 2017. (REUTERS Photo)
Police and fire department work at the religious school Darul Quran Ittifaqiyah after a fire broke out in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia September 14, 2017. (REUTERS Photo)
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Malaysia School Fire Leaves 24 Dead

Police and fire department work at the religious school Darul Quran Ittifaqiyah after a fire broke out in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia September 14, 2017. (REUTERS Photo)
Police and fire department work at the religious school Darul Quran Ittifaqiyah after a fire broke out in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia September 14, 2017. (REUTERS Photo)

Twenty-four people, mostly teenage boys, were killed Thursday when a blaze tore through a religious boarding school in Malaysia, in what officials said was one of the country's worst fire disasters for years.

The blaze broke out before dawn in the tahfiz -- an Islamic religious school -- in the heart of the capital Kuala Lumpur.

Firefighters rushed to the scene and the blaze was out within an hour but not before it wreaked terrible devastation.

Officials suspected an electrical short circuit caused the fire that broke out in a top floor dormitory, where most of the students perished.

Pictures in local media showed ash-covered, fire-blackened beds, as horrific accounts emerged of the youngsters trying to escape the school as it went up in flames and neighbors hearing their cries for help.

"The children were desperately trying to escape the flames," Federal Territories Minister Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor said in a television interview.

Metal grills prevented them from exiting the burning three-story building, he said.

Kuala Lumpur Police chief Amar Singh said that "the bodies were totally burned".

"Unfortunately there was only one entrance, so they could not escape. All the bodies were found lumped on one another."

The Star newspaper reported that people in the area who had woken for morning prayers heard cries for help and saw flames engulfing the top floor of the building.

Officials initially said 23 students and two teachers were killed in the blaze. Police later revised down the death toll to 22 students and two teachers.

Six other students were in hospital in critical condition, police chief Singh said, while a handful escaped unhurt.

He said the victims, who were students, were all boys aged between 13 and 17.

Khirudin Drahman, director of Kuala Lumpur's fire and rescue department told AFP it was one of the country's worst fire tragedies in 20 years.

Officials said based on the records of the Kuala Lumpur fire safety department, the school had just submitted a request for fire safety approval for the building but no checks had been carried as the request was still being processed.



Philippines, US Test Air Defenses as China Seizes Reef

(FILES) This handout photo taken on March 21, 2024 and received from the Philippine Coast Guard and Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (PCG/BFAR) shows an aerial view of Philippine scientists inspecting Sandy Cay reef, near the Philippine-held Thitu Island, in Spratly Islands, in disputed waters of the South China Sea. (Photo by Handout / Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) / AFP)
(FILES) This handout photo taken on March 21, 2024 and received from the Philippine Coast Guard and Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (PCG/BFAR) shows an aerial view of Philippine scientists inspecting Sandy Cay reef, near the Philippine-held Thitu Island, in Spratly Islands, in disputed waters of the South China Sea. (Photo by Handout / Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) / AFP)
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Philippines, US Test Air Defenses as China Seizes Reef

(FILES) This handout photo taken on March 21, 2024 and received from the Philippine Coast Guard and Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (PCG/BFAR) shows an aerial view of Philippine scientists inspecting Sandy Cay reef, near the Philippine-held Thitu Island, in Spratly Islands, in disputed waters of the South China Sea. (Photo by Handout / Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) / AFP)
(FILES) This handout photo taken on March 21, 2024 and received from the Philippine Coast Guard and Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (PCG/BFAR) shows an aerial view of Philippine scientists inspecting Sandy Cay reef, near the Philippine-held Thitu Island, in Spratly Islands, in disputed waters of the South China Sea. (Photo by Handout / Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) / AFP)

Missiles fired off the coast of the northern Philippines Sunday as US and Filipino forces conducted their first integrated defense drills, hours after China said it had seized control of a reef claimed by Manila.

The Philippines and China have been engaged in months of confrontations over the South China Sea, which Beijing claims nearly in its entirety despite an international ruling that its assertion has no legal basis.

As many as 17,000 personnel are participating in the annual "Balikatan" exercises, which this year will simulate a "full-scale battle scenario" as the treaty allies seek to deter China's ambitions in the disputed waterway, AFP reported.

Chinese state broadcaster CCTV on Saturday reported that the country's coast guard had "implemented maritime control" over Tiexian Reef, also known as Sandy Cay, this month.

The tiny sandbank, part of the Spratly Islands, lies near Thitu Island, also called Pag-asa and site of a Philippine military facility.

The Philippine government has yet to formally respond to the claim.

In coastal Zambales province, hours north of the capital Manila, AFP journalists watched Sunday as the US Marine Corp's new MADIS short-range air defense system knocked a pair of drones from the sky.

The coastal defense exercise saw MADIS work in concert with the Philippines' SPYDER missile system, defending it from drone attack as it targeted simulated incoming cruise missiles.

"MADIS is short-range. SPYDER is more of a medium-range capability (and they) both engaged different threats," said Matthew Sladek, commander of the US 3rd Littoral Anti-Air Battalion.

"The more we work together, that only ... enhances our collective lethality."

Chinese warships have been spotted in waters near the Philippines since the Balikatan exercises kicked off last week.

The aircraft carrier Shandong on April 22 "was detected underway 2.23 nautical miles (about four kilometers) southwest" of the Philippines' far northern Babuyan Island, the navy reported.

On Sunday, the Philippine Navy said three other vessels had been spotted a day before about 60 kilometers from Zambales.

US defense secretary Pete Hegseth last month told an audience in Manila that the United States was "doubling down" on its alliance with the country, noting the necessity of deterrence "considering the threats from the Communist Chinese".

Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun has since slammed the Balikatan exercises as a blow to regional stability.

On Monday, Balikatan will continue with troops simulating defending against an enemy landing force along a stretch of southern Palawan island.