A mystery fire turned a school dormitory into an inferno killing 23 teenage schoolboys in the Belgian town of Heusden on Wednesday night (January 23). eyewitnesses reported there was panic when the alarm was given. But 38 boys managed to escape from the inferno, two of them seriously hurt.

Of those killed, at least 10 died in their beds. The boys, all pupils of the Catholic Sacred Heart College, were aged between 12 and 15.

Queen fabiola of Belgium visited the scene of the tragedy on Thursday afternoon. It was expected that an official inquiry would be held into the fire. But even 24 hours afterwards there was still no immediate indication of the cause.