At least 20 students from a nursery school were killed on Tuesday in a fire that ravaged the establishment, located in the Nigerien capital Niamey, according to local media on Wednesday.

Halidou Mounkaila, the secretary-general of the National Trade Union of Contractual Agents and Civil Servants in Basic Education said: “25 out of 38 classrooms in the school were devastated by the fire. The provisional death toll is 20”.

The school where the fire started is located on the southeastern outskirts of Niamey, not far from the airport.