Kumbakonam fire toll rises to 92

Two girls injured in the fire in a school in Kumbakonam in Tamil Nadu's Thanjavur district succumbed on Wednesday taking the toll to 92. They had been admitted to the Thanjavur Medical College Hospital for treatment.

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Meanwhile, district collector Dr J Radhakrishnan said the students of the school have been shifted to 17 other schools (primary school students among six schools, middle school students among six schools and high school students among five schools).

New teachers have been appointed in the primary school at Natham, 5km from Kumbakonam. Its students had been attending the school at Kumbakonam owing to a lack of teachers. Fifteen of the children from Natham had died in the fire.

Meanwhile, five more people: a retired district elementary education officer, an assistant district elementary education officer, the personal assistant to the district education officer, the assistant education officer and superintendent of education, were on Wednesday arrested in connection with the fire taking the total number of those arrested to 16, police said in Tiruchirapalli.

Police have already arrested the school correspondent, his wife and two employees of the noon-meal centre, apart from a tehsildar, a chartered engineer and five employees of the education department on July 16 and July 20.