Eight pupils died in a fire that ripped through a boarding school in Indonesia.

The youngsters were caught in the blaze at the Miftahul Khoirot Islamic Boarding School in Karawang Regency, West Java Province, Monday February 21.

Several students managed to escape the inferno and three were injured before being taken to hospital.

Rohmat, head of the fire department at the Karawang Regency Regional Disaster Management Agency said: 'Eight students died, three were injured and have now been treated by medical personnel.'

The victims who died suffered severe burns. One of them was burned so badly that staff could not identify him.

Karawang Police Chief, Adjunct Senior Commissioner Aldi Subartono, said the fire was thought to have started from an electrical short circuit.

According to several witnesses, there were sparks from the electric fan in the student's room.

The fire spread to the mattress, and quickly burned the student room building.

'Actually, we are still trying to determine the cause of this fire. However, the initial information was like that, the sparks came from buildings made of wood,' said Aldi.

The students and administrators of the Islamic boarding school tried to extinguish the fire until they waited for the firefighters to arrive.

However, due to the large size of the fire, the process of extinguishing it took a long time. Firefighters could only put out the fire after two hours.