A girls' school dormitory collapsed in southern Turkey today due to a gas explosion, killing at least 17 students and injuring at least 25, broadcaster NTV said.
"There may still be 10-15 students under the rubble," Konya governor Osman Aydin told state Anatolian news agency.
The building, flattened like a house of cards, in the province of Konya was being used as a dormitory for students taking part in a course on the Koran.
At the scene, dozens of men wielding pick axes and hammers dug at the rubble. Television footage also showed injured girls being carried from a minibus into a hospital in a nearby town.
Medical rescue teams were at the scene and were trying to pull out two students still alive under the debris.
Two of the injured were in a serious condition.
"We think the collapse was caused by a gas canister explosion in the building, given the burns on the injured," Konya health service official Galip Sef said, according to Anatolian.
Anatolian said the three-storey building belonged to a religious foundation.