Parents broke down in tears as the bodies of their children were buried or cremated today after the fire in an Indian school which killed 90 children. The bodies of 75 children were recovered from the Sri Krishna school after the fire yesterday. Another 15 children, most just eight or 10 years old, died of their burns in hospital.
Doctors said another 19 children were in hospital with burns, some of them severe.
Five people, including the school principal and the cook, were arrested. Authorities are also investigating why no teachers were killed or injured in the fire.
The blaze began in a kitchen where Friday's lunch was being prepared before spreading to the school's palm-thatched roof.
Many of the children were trapped in a large classroom which had only one exit, dying after the blazing roof collapsed on top of them and blocked their way out.
Others died of suffocation as they tried to escape down the narrow staircases.
"The kids were too small to break down the wall or think of any way out," said Balu, a 35-year old father of two, whose children were being taught on another floor and escaped unhurt.
"The government is to blame as there has been no inspection of this school for at least two to three years. If someone had inspected the facilities, maybe they might have pointed it out to the school management, and this might have been avoided."
Newspapers criticised the lack of adequate exits and fire extinguishers as well as the fact that cooking was being
carried out under a thatched roof.
The state government said it would give 100,000 rupees ($2,175) in compensation to the parents of each victim. In New Delhi Prime Minister Manmohan Singh sent two cabinet ministers to the state and ordered an investigation into the tragedy.
"Children are the most precious asset of our nation and the loss of so many innocent lives is a matter of deepest sorrow," he said.
The Perumandi cremation and burial ground in the town stayed open overnight as attendants buried or burned the bodies of dozens of children killed in the blaze.
"At least 30 of the bodies that have come here were in the 5-10 year age group," said burial ground owner Subramanian. "
The parents are rushing through the last rites as they cannot bear to look at the charred bodies any more."
The fire is the second major fire tragedy in the state this year. More than 50 people were killed in an inferno at a marriage hall in January.
Fires at India's overcrowded and dilapidated schools occur frequently, with safety regulations routinely flaunted.
In 1995, at least 400 people, most of them children, died when a fire destroyed a school in northern India.