News Center- At least 17 students have been killed and 16 injured in a fire that broke out in an elementary school dormitory in central Kenya, the Kenya National Police Service said on Friday.

The fire occurred late Thursday at the Hillside Endarasha Academy in Kieni, in the country’s Nyeri county, Resila Onyango, spokesperson of the Kenya National Police Service, said, adding that the cause of the fire on Thursday night is being investigated. “The bodies recovered at the scene were burnt beyond recognition.”

There have been a series of school fires in Kenya in recent years. In September 2017, nine students were killed in a fire at a school in the capital, Nairobi. In 2001, 58 students were killed in a dormitory fire at Kyanguli secondary school outside Nairobi. In 2012, eight students were killed at a school in Homa Bay county in western Kenya.