UAE stands in solidarity with Guyana over school fire that killed 19

The UAE expressed its solidarity with the Cooperative Republic of Guyana over a fire that broke out in a residential building for students located south of the capital, Georgetown, which resulted in dozens of deaths and injuries.

In a statement, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) expressed its sincere condolences and sympathy to the Government of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana and its people, as well as to the families of victims, and its wishes for a speedy recovery for all the injured.

'Maliciously set'

The fire at a schoolgirls' dormitory that killed 19 people in Guyana may have been started "maliciously," police said Monday, as anger grew in the small South American country the day after the blaze.

Sunday's inferno gutted a building housing girls aged 11-12 and 16-17. Guyana Police Commissioner Clifton Hicken said during a press conference Monday afternoon that an "initial investigation suggests... that (the fire) was maliciously set."

"Our investigation is continuing," Hicken told reporters, joined by President Irfaan Ali, who declared three days of national mourning. No suspects have yet been identified, Hicken added, though he told AFP he expects to have more information in the next 48 hours.

"Fourteen youths died at the scene, while five died at the Mahdia District Hospital," according to a statement from the fire department.

The government had previously said 20 people died in the blaze at the Mahdia Secondary School in the central part of the country.

Guyana, with a population of 800,000, is South America's only English-speaking nation. It is a former Dutch and British colony which recently discovered it holds the world's largest per capita oil reserves.

After the weekend tragedy, more than a dozen children received hospital treatment locally while six serious cases were airlifted to the capital Georgetown. "Two children remain in critical condition, while four are nursing severe injuries as a result of the incident," added the fire brigade.

There were 63 pupils inside the building when the fire broke out. "This is a major disaster. It is horrible, it is painful," Ali said on Sunday night.

Ali said he had ordered arrangements to be made in Georgetown's two major hospitals "so that every single child who requires attention be given the best possible opportunity to get that attention."

At Monday's press conference Hicken said autopsies had already been performed on the bodies of at least six of the victims, and that all of them would undergo DNA testing.

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