A four-year-old girl was killed after a major fire broke out in a government-run residential school in Chhattisgarh's tribal-dominated Bijapur district, officials said on Thursday.
The blaze erupted late Wednesday night at the porta cabin (prefabricated portable structure) school for girls in Chintakonta village under Awapalli police station limits, a school education department official here said.
The victim was not a student of the school. She was staying with her elder sister, who is a student of the school, since the last few days, the official said.
"All 380 students of the facility were safely evacuated by porta cabin staffers and local villagers. However, later it was found that the younger sister of a student was missing. She died of burn injuries," he said.
After being alerted, a fire brigade team reached the spot and the blaze was brought under control with the help of villagers, officials said. Visuals of the spot showed the porta cabin structure was completely gutted in the fire.
The cause of the blaze was not yet known. Porta cabins are used for setting up school infrastructure in some of the Naxal-affected areas of the state.
