Kumbakonam: Eighty students aged between eight and ten years were today (Jul 16, 2004) charred to death while over 25 others received serious burns when a major fire whipped through their school in Kumbakonam of Tamil Nadu's Thanjavur district.

While most of the children died on the spot and were charred beyond recognition, some others succumbed to injuries in the hospitals.

The victims were in the age group of eight to ten; District Magistrate J Radhakrishnan said adding that no teacher was among the victims.

The fire, which is believed to have started from the kitchen when the noon meal for nursery children was being prepared, soon spread to a row of thatched roof classrooms where students from class one to class five were present, police and eyewitnesses said.

Five class rooms on the third floor of the Saraswati Nursery School were gutted in the fire that broke out at 11 hrs (IST) students were present in the Sri Krishna Girls High School complex housing primary, middle and high schools.

While the high school and middle school students escaped on noticing the fire, the nursery school children got trapped as the thatched roof collapsed on them making their movement difficult.

The injured were rushed to Government and some private hospitals where their condition was stated to be serious.

Radhakrishnan said that the fire completely destroyed five classrooms. Some of the victims also died of suffocation, as the exit passage was narrow, he said.