Children set on fire by Brazilian nursery school guard

RIO DE JANEIRO: Four toddlers and their teacher died Thursday in southeastern Brazil after a nursery school security guard sprayed them with alcohol and set them on fire, officials said.

The guard hospitalized with burns all over his body later succumbed to his wounds and died, the hospital’s director Bruno Ataide Santos told a French wire service.

Some 50 people were injured, mostly with burns, as the blaze spread through the “Innocent People” nursery in Janauba, in Minas Gerais state, early Thursday morning, before it was brought under control by firefighers, according to a statement from state prosecutors.

Witnesses told the online news site UOL that the man, in his fifties, had been working as a night watchman for eight years.

Minas Gerais police said officers went to the suspect’s home and visited his relatives to try to understand the motive for the attack.

President Michel Temer expressed his condolences via Twitter.

“I am deeply saddened by this tragedy involving children in Janauba, and I want to express my solidarity with the families,” Temer wrote.

As the father of a school-age childern, Temer said he understood “this must be an extremely painful loss” for the parents.

Janauba, a city of 70,000, is located some 600 kilometers (370 miles) north of the city of Belo Horizonte.

The office of Janauba’s mayor decreed seven days of mourning. – Agencies