Authorities charge 6 over deadly schoolgirl dorm fire

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December 4, 2016 3:06 PM

An adult tutor was also killed in the fire that ripped through the dorm on Tuesday in the southern Adana region

Relatives carry a coffin in Adana, Turkey, on December 1, 2016 during a funeral for the victims of a fire that killed 11 schoolgirls and an adult tutor

Turkish authorities on Sunday charged six people over a blaze in a dormitory building that killed 11 schoolgirls last week, state media reported.

Among those charged and placed under arrest pending trial were the dorm manager as well as the head of an association linked to the religious body that owns the building and two board members, the Anadolu news agency said.

An adult tutor was also killed in the fire that ripped through the dorm on Tuesday in the southern Adana region, which officials said was likely caused by an electrical fault.

About 24 people were injured, including eight adults, as they tried to escape the blaze which tore through the building's wooden interior.

The agency said a total of 14 people had been detained over the fire but six have been released to "judicial control", the equivalent of probation.

The dormitory is said to have belonged to a religious Sunni Muslim sect known as the Suleymanci.

After the fire, the government came under attack by the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) which accused it of failing to properly fund student digs, forcing poor families to use accommodation run by religious communities.

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