The Guyanese government has mobilised a “full-scale medical evacuation-supported response”.

Five planes have departed for Mahdia to support regional health officials with additional medical supplies and medivacs, the government said in a statement. Seven children are being sent by medivac to Georgetown.

President Mohamed Irfaan Ali said: “All efforts will now be made to contact the parents of the girls to relay the information, as they hail from not only Mahdia, but Campbelltown, Micobie, El Paso, and several other villages in North Pakaraimas, in Region Eight.”

The fire at the school’s girls’ dormitory is believed to have started around midnight.

The prime minister is leading a team of cabinet and other officials to Mahdia and Home Affairs Minister Robeson Benn is already there.