Thailand school dormitory fire kills at least 18 schoolgirls in Chiang Rai

A police source said five other girls were injured

Thai firefighters and rescue workers remove an injured Thai student (top) after a fire broke out at a school dormitory in Chiang Rai province, northern Thailand (EPA)

Eighteen girls aged between five and 12 have been killed in a fire at a boarding school dormitory in northern Thailand.

A police source said five other girls were injured, two seriously, in the blaze in the Chiang Rai province.

He said two of the bodies were so badly burned they were unidentifiable.

Some girls survived without injuries, but it was not known how many.

Thai firefighters and rescue workers collect the bodies of Thai elementary girl students after a fire broke out at a school dormitory in Chiang Rai province, northern Thailand, early 23 May 2016 (EPA)

Firefighters took three hours to extinguish the blaze and pulled survivors and bodies from the second-floor window of the wooden building.

The cause of the fire was not immediately known.