Myanmar police say 13 children die in electrical fire at mosque
YANGON, Myanmar – Police in Myanmar say 13 children died when an electrical fire broke out at a mosque in the country’s largest city.
Police officer Thet Lwin said the blaze early Tuesday in Yangon was triggered by an overheated inverter “and not due to any criminal activity.”
Myanmar has been on edge in recent days after sectarian violence between Buddhists and Muslims erupted in the central city of Meikhtila earlier this month, killing dozens of people and displacing more than 10,000.
Thet Lwin (Tet Win) says the mosque in eastern Yangon sheltered about 75 orphans, and most escaped unharmed by running out of a door after police knocked it open.
Firefighters extinguished the blaze and the two-story building was charred but intact.
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