Twenty-seven girls were burned to death as they slept early Friday by a fire in the dormitory of a private religious school in Malaysia's northwest town of Alor Setar. Sixty others escaped.
The death toll marked the inferno as the worst fire in memory in Malaysia.Shaari Hashim, who lives near the Islamic institution, said he called the fire department when he spotted flames shooting out the windows.
The dead students, ranging in age from 13 to 16, boarded at the Madrasah Private School and came from the northwest states of Perak and Kedah, officials said.