“This is a major disaster. It is horrible, it is painful,” the South American nation’s President Irfaan Ali said Sunday night.

The death toll had risen to 20 and several people were injured in the fire at the Mahdia Secondary School in central Guyana, the government statement said.

According to several media reports, the fire engulfed a dormitory of the boarding school.

Several students were treated for serious injuries and at least six were taken to the capital for being hospitalized.

Security advisor Gerald Gouveia explained the fire started off shortly after midnight.

A total of 14 students died at the scene and five others died at a local hospital, while two students remain criticially-ill, four with serious injuries and 10 others are under observation.

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