Dormitory explosion kills eight in Turkey

At least eight children were killed today when a suspected gas explosion collapsed a dormitory at a boarding school in central Turkey.

Two pupils were feared dead under the rubble in Kayseri, 480 miles south-east of Istanbul.

Mayor Mehmet Ozhaseki said a gas canister had probably exploded in the kitchen at about 2.30am.

The building collapsed on top of the children as they slept.

Rescuers pulled 21 people to safety and 13, including a teacher, were being treated for injuries.

Turkish television footage showed rescuers using heavy equipment to dig through the completely collapsed building.

A giant slab of concrete partially covered two pupils and another was seen wandering over the rubble with a bloody gash on his head.

“Everyone was sleeping. Then they started screaming,” one injured pupil said at a local hospital.

“I heard a sound and then there was rubble on top of me,” said another.

One boy, Hasan Huseyin Kilinc, avoided a similar fate after he decided not to stay at the dormitory last night.

“I missed my mother,” the 15-year-old said. “My father came to get me. I am very said to hear about my friends.”

Officials said the children were staying at the dormitory as they took part in a course on how to read and recite the Koran. Some had arrived recently.

In May, a dormitory in eastern Turkey collapsed in a magnitude 6.4 earthquake, killing 84 students.

Critics blamed the building’s collapse on shoddy construction.