At least 27 people, many of them children, have been killed in a fire at a boarding Quranic school in a suburb of the Liberian capital Monrovia.
The fire is believed to have broken out around midnight gutted a dormitory and school building where students slept about 11 kilometres east of Monrovia, police spokesman said.
Only the imam and two students escaped, he said. The blaze was electrical, he said, adding the cause of the fire was under investigation.
Hundreds of grief-stricken people stood in shock as ambulances took away the bodies. Others wailed and wept as police pushed back a curious, surging crowd.
Officials told AFP news agency that the victims were 10 years old and above.
One of the visitors in the morning was President Weah. He was due to attend the funeral at mosque in Monrovia in the afternoon.
