We'll shortly be closing our live coverage. Here's what we know so far:

• 17 children have died after a fire in the boys' dormitory at the Hillside Endarasha Academy
• Kenya's Deputy President says 70 people have not yet been accounted for and called on parents who had picked up their children, as well as neighbours who helped those who fled, to report to authorities

• The fire started around 23:00 local time on Thursday

• An investigation has been launched
• Family members of the pupils at the school say they are receiving very little information and describe waiting for news as "torture"
• Police said the average age of the victims was around nine years old

• Kenya's Interior Minister Kithure Kindiki has visited the school, and promised "full accountability for all whose action or inaction contributed to this tremendous loss"
• The government has promised to mobilise all available resources to support the families of those involved and a number of ministries are coordinating their response

• School fires are not uncommon for Kenya and repeated incidents have taken place for more than 30 years
• The BBC has also reviewed a report released four years ago, which warned many secondary schools in Kenya were not well prepared to respond to fires

Gladys Kigo
Reporting from Nyeri

Kenya's Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua has told journalists that 70 people have not yet been accounted for following a school fire in central Kenya.

He called on parents who had picked up their children after the overnight fire in a boys' dormitory, as well as neighbours who helped those who fled, to report to authorities.

Kenya's deputy president Rigathi Gachagua has just been speaking outside the school, after meeting parents.

He says investigators will create a report that will be made public when finished.

Gachagua says the government will assist families with burials and help hospitals.

"We are just about to begin a very difficult exercise, to take the parents to the scene," he says.

The deputy president asked relatives and neighbours who came and collected children to report it, so the children are accounted for.

Francis Wachira, 33, has a daughter at the school.

He tells the AFP news agency that there has been "very little information".

"They are telling us some children escaped but we are not being told to where.

"The more I stay here the more my hope in finding the child is fading," Wachira adds.

Meanwhile, Elisabeth Nyambura, 35, tells AFP that her 13-year-old son was found and now she is looking for one of his classmates.

"All he told me was that he saw smoke and they escaped through the window.

"I am just glad he is alive," Nyambura adds.

Speaking at the scene, Interior Minister Kithure Kindiki said some children who escaped ended up in neighbouring homes.

Barbara Plett Usher
Reporting from Nyeri

The uncle of a schoolboy missing from the school has told of the "torture" of waiting for news.

John Githogo told journalists in Nyeri he didn't know if his nephew had been killed or was amongst a group of pupils believed to have run away from the fire.

He said: "We've not had any news, nobody has talked to us. They've just recorded our names with the Red Cross.

"We are being told some are dead, some ran away, some were picked by their parents.

"But we didn't pick our boy. We don't know if he ran away."

He added: "We don't know if he's among the dead, among the people who ran away. It's torture.

"It's painful because you don't know what's happening."

Barbara Plett Usher
Reporting from Nyeri

Warning: This post contains details some may find distressing

I'm standing outside the Mt Kenya hospital, where a temporary trauma centre will soon be based.

It is clear there will be many children who have been traumatised by the experience. Families have been told to take children here for psychological counselling.

Some families are still looking for their children, and are not entirely clear where they could be or if they are among the dead.

Part of this is because the bodies are burnt beyond recognition.

The most immediate concern for parents now is the horrible task of finding out what happened to their children.

Image source, Reuters

Kenya's Interior Minister Kithure Kindiki has just visited Hillside Endarasha Primary School, and released a statement on social media.

"Kenya woke up to the devastating news of the tragic loss and severe injury on lovely children of Kieni Hillside Academy in Nyeri County as a result of a terrible pre-dawn fire which razed down their dormitory as the pupils slept," he writes on X.

He also reaffirms that government agencies are being deployed to support the affected families.

"The government assures full accountability for all whose action or inaction contributed to this tremendous loss," Kindiki says.

The school where a fire broke out last night, claiming at least 17 young pupils, is in the Central Highlands of Kenya, 150kms (93 miles) north of the capital Nairobi.

Hillside Endarasha Academy is a private primary boarding school located in Nyeri county.

Investigators are working to establish the cause of the fire and the county's governor Mutahi Kahiga has described the fire as a "great loss" as it "has taken away young people with promising futures".

Barbara Plett Usher
Reporting from Nyeri

The International Committee of the Red Cross has told the BBC that it is operating a temporary trauma centre at the school.

The organisation is giving counselling to 59 children and will move the operation to Mt Kenya hospital here in Nyeri later in the day.

Kenya's Nation newspaper is reporting that parents who picked their children up overnight have been asked to go to Mt Kenya hospital for counselling.

Kenyan schools ill-prepared to handle firespublished at 12:45 British Summer Time 6 September

12:45 BST 6 September

By Peter Mwai in Nairobi, Kenya

A report released four years ago, external had warned that many secondary schools in Kenya were not well prepared to respond to fires, and didn’t adhere to government safety standards.

The report by the country’s auditor general, which looked at about 40 secondary schools from across the country, revealed that many lacked proper equipment to handle fire outbreaks and were not constructed in accordance with required safety standards.

The Safety Standards Manual for Schools in Kenya, issued in 2008, external, for example require school buildings to have doors that open outwards.

But the audit discovered about half of the schools had classrooms with doors opening inwards.

Five out of the schools checked had dormitories with doors opening inwards.

“In the event of fire, students are likely to lock (sic) themselves from the inside of the buildings as they struggle to get out, given the population in the schools,” the report noted.

Other schools had windows with reinforced metal grills, making it hard for learners to escape in case of fires.

Overcrowding was also common in most of the schools.

The fire in Nyeri county was at a primary school, although observers believe it’s unlikely that adherence to safety standards is any better in primary schools.

Anne Soy
BBC News, Nairobi

Kenya's government issued a new manual in 2008 with guidance for safety in schools, following violence in the country around the elections in 2007.

It included protocols for the safety of dormitories, including rules stating that each dormitory should have a door at either end and an additional emergency exit at the middle.

The rules include the fact that dormitory windows should be without grills and “should be easy to open outwards”.

The document also states that fire extinguishing equipment "should be functioning and placed at each exit with fire alarms fitted at easily accessible points".

Wycliffe Muia
BBC Africa Online

Students from St. Peters Clevers Boys Secondary School and Maiani Boys Secondary School have been told to go home after their dormitories were razed down on Thursday night.

No casualties were reported in the incidents, which happened when students were still in their evening classes.

The cause of the fires was not immediately established.

At least five public secondary schools have been closed down indefinitely in Makueni county over the last two weeks, following similar fire incidents.

Barbara Plett Usher
Reporting from Nairobi

Warning: This post contains details some may find distressing

A local government official in Nyeri has told journalists a bit more about what happened last night at the Hillside Endarasha Primary School.

Samson Mwangi Mwema said the fire started around 23:00 local time.

He was awakened by a phone call and joined many others in desperate efforts to rescue the boys trapped in the dormitory.

“No one knew where the fire came from… but we were more than 2,000 people trying to rescue [them],” he said.

“We found some children under the bed, and we were able to rescue them, some had not been burned.”

Mwema said the school was one of the best in the area.

“It’s a huge loss, but we shall continue and God will help us.”

Images of previous Kenya fires circulating onlinepublished at 10:58 British Summer Time 6 September

10:58 BST 6 September

By Richard Irvine-Brown

With the fire happening at night in the Kenyan countryside, there is a lack of pictures available at the moment.

In this vacuum, people have been sharing old images on social media.

For instance, the picture below has been shared by several accounts online, including journalists.

It is actually from a fire at a Kenyan school, but one that happened at St Patrick's School in Iten in July 2016 - a town around 200km (124 miles) away from Hillside Endarasha Primary in Nyeri.

However, it appears to be being used as an illustrative image, rather than shared maliciously. We've seen it used on local news stories in 2021, 2022 and 2023, but it should not be confused with this fire.

There is also another graphic image being shared on social media of dead, burned bodies in a charred room, with people looking through a window at the scene. Again, it's not from last night.

We've found use of it from as far back as 2008, regarding violence in the town of Naivasha – 64km from Nyeri.

As recently as yesterday it was being shared as being from another, unconnected story of violence in Kenya, this time 82km away in the Kiambaa region.

We've just heard from Kenya's interior ministry, which says police officers - including forensics experts - from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations have been dispatched to look into the cause of the fire.

It also confirms that the area has been cordoned off by officers already on the scene.

The ministry statement also confirms disaster response experts and the Kenya Red Cross are already on scene and "working to coordinate support for parents and the school community, offering aid and counselling services".

It says education ministry officials and health workers are also on site to offer "specialised care and assistance".

"We wish a swift recovery to those injured in this unfortunate incident as we also review the security management of schools," the ministry adds.

Image source, The Kenya Red Cross

As part of their ongoing response efforts, the Kenya Red Cross says it is working to link pupils with their parents, including those at the hospital.

It also continues to provide psychosocial support and assess the children's well-being,

"This is being done in collaboration with a multi-agency response team."

More from the Kenyan Ministry of Education now.

In a statement published online, it says it is working with the Ministry of Interior and National Administration and the Health Ministry to manage the situation.

From President William Ruto's instructions, they are working with security agencies to find out the root cause of the incident.

Image source, Ephantus Maina

The Kenyan Ministry of Education has confirmed that 17 pupils have died following the fire in the boys' dormitory at the Hillside Endarasha Primary school.

Another 14 other people are injured and in "various hospitals", the ministry says in a statement.

The dormitory that caught fire was housing 156 students.

The school has 824 pupils - 402 boys and 422 girls - and of these, 316 are boarders and the remaining are day pupils.

It took firefighters time to access the school due to muddy roads following early morning rains.

Despite the challenges, the fire was finally put out, with the help of local residents who were the first to respond.

"The county government has done all it can to salvage the situation," Nyeri county Governor Mutahi Kahiga said.

He called the fire a "great loss", as it "has taken away young people with promising futures".

Investigators are working to establish the cause of the fire.