Authorities in southern Turkey have detained six people over a fire in a dormitory that killed 11 schoolgirls and one other person, the state-run Anadolu news agency reports.
Flames swept through the mostly wooden interior of the two-storey dormitory in the town of Aladag late on Tuesday, causing the roof to collapse.
European Affairs Minister Omer Celik, a ruling AK Party lawmaker who represents the surrounding province in the national parliament, said the suspected cause was an electrical fault.
But the opposition complained of lax regulation and criticised an education policy that has seen a growing number of such dormitories set up to house poor students from villages where there are no state schools.
Local media said the dormitory was run by one of the several religious movements in Turkey that operate such facilities. Elif Dogan Turkmen, a lawmaker from the main opposition Republican People's Party, said she had unsuccessfully tabled several proposals in parliament to improve the inspection and supervision of such buildings.
Local mayor Huseyin Sozlu was quoted by the Hurriyet newspaper as saying the door to a fire escape was shut, trapping some of the victims inside. But Deputy Prime Minister Veysi Kaynak denied that was the case.
Kaynak rejected claims of insufficient inspections, saying the building had been audited in June as well as last year and that it had the necessary licence.
The fire began on the ground floor but quickly spread through wooden fixtures and carpets, according to a CNN Turk correspondent who said children had smashed windows on the upper floor as they tried to escape.
Twenty-four people, many of them schoolgirls, were injured. One of the people detained was the dormitory manager.
