Mahdia tragedy: 19 murder charges for alleged teenage arsonist

Police have received legal advice to charge the 15-year-old girl who allegedly set the female dormitory of the Mahdia Secondary school on fire with 19 counts of murder.

The News Room was reliably informed that the file was recently resent to the Police with recommendation that the girl face a murder charge for each life claimed in the horrific fire.

She is likely to face the courts early in the new week.

A total of 19 children– 18 girls and one boy- died in the devastating fire which started after 23:00 hrs on May 21.

The Police claim that the suspect set the fire after her cellphone was confiscated by the house mother.

The fire continued for some three hours before it was controlled.

Another 29 girls were injured in the fire. Many of them have received the necessary treatment for their physical injuries and are receiving mental health support.

Two girls were critically injured and on Saturday, one of them, a 13-year-old, was flown to New York for critical care.

The bodies of 14 persons were burnt beyond recognition and DNA samples had to be sent to Mount Sinai Hospital in New York for analyses. The remains were all subsequently positively identified.

An estimated 56 children were housed in the dormitory which was heavily grilled; the doors were also keyed and the house mother could not find the keys in time to open the doors during the incident.

The school housed girls from Mahdia, Campbelltown, Micobie, El Paso and several other villages in the North Pakaraimas in Region 8.