The girls ignited the fire in the underground floor of the school while playing with a coal holder and then ran away from the scene to their classrooms when the blaze picked up, said Brig. Abdullah Jeddawi, director of Civil Defense in the city on Wednesday.
He said confessions of the students have been recorded in the presence of their parents and school authorities. "So far five students have acknowledged that they were behind the fire," a member from the investigation committee told Arab News.
The students are from Class III of the intermediate level. The students said they found a coal holder while playing inside the underground floor and used it to set fire to papers. They became afraid when the fire started spreading and ran away to their classrooms without informing the teachers or authorities.
The fire killed two teachers and injured 46 students.
