A fire at a residential school in Karnataka’s Kodagu district claimed the life of a seven-year-old boy early on Thursday morning, the police said.

The boy, Pushpak, a Class 2 student from Chettimani village, had returned to Har Mandir School at Katakeri in Madikeri taluk just two days earlier after Dasara holidays, along with 52 other students. He was the son of Anil Kumar, who is a farmer, and Triveni. His sister Sinchana studies in Class 6 at the school.

According to the police, a staffer staying at the school hostel noticed the fire and alerted others after thick smoke began filling the building at around 4 am. School staff, including the warden, quickly evacuated the students to safety.

While the staff assumed that all the students had been rescued, they found during a headcount tha

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