At least 100 children were killed today in a fire at a girl's school in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu.
Dozens of children were injured, some severely, a local official in Kumbakonam, a town famous for its Hindu temples 1,200 miles south of New Delhi, told NDTV television.
Television showed rescuers desperately trying to break into the upper floor to rescue children.
Police officers and residents look at the burned remains of a section of the school building.
Others battled the blaze with hoses from which water was barely able to flow as crowds of sobbing parents, some beating their chests in anguish, crowded around ambulances.
About 900 students, most aged between about six and 11, were attending the Lord Krishna school when the fire broke out as lunch was being cooked.
"It is an accidental fire. Initially the roof of the first floor caught fire and then spread across the school," said a police spokesman, adding that rescue work was still going on.
A police officer in the district control room said at least 100 people had died, but other officers said they had counted 75 bodies so far.
The fire had been extinguished and rescuers were searching the building for more dead and injured.
It was the second major fire mishap in the state this year. More than 50 people were charred to death in an inferno at a marriage hall in January.