Authorities in Guyana said on Tuesday that Sunday’s fire at a girls’ school dormitory in the center of the country that killed 19 people, all of them minors, was set by a girl who was angry over confiscation. Her cell phone by management. “It is suspected that the schoolgirl started the fire as her cell phone was confiscated,” the police statement said. For his part, a government official told AFP that a student, who did not want to be named, said the student was injured in the fire and admitted he stood behind him.

A fire broke out on Sunday in the dormitory of a girls’ school in the mining town in the heart of the small English-speaking country in South America. 19 people including 18 schoolgirls and a boy son of the hostel manager died in this accident. According to the government official, the hostel management “confiscated the cell phone of the girl who had threatened to set fire to the building that same evening and everyone heard it.”

The source explained that the schoolgirl is currently undergoing treatment at the hospital under police supervision for the injuries sustained in the fire. After the cell phone was confiscated, the student went to the toilet at night and sprayed the curtain with insecticide and set it on fire with a match. This account is corroborated by many female survivors. In the statement given by the police, “The students claimed to have fallen asleep and woke up to the sound of screams. They found fire and smoke in the bathroom, which quickly spread throughout the building.