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fire razed a pesantren (Islamic boarding school) in Kubang Jaya Village, Riau, in the early hours of Tuesday morning, leaving two students dead.

The bodies of the two students, identified as Arsadi Rabbani, 16, and Musa Alimul Haq, 17, were found under a stairway and inside a storeroom and were taken to the Bhayangkara Police Hospital in Pekanbaru for autopsies.

Siak Hulu Police Office Chief Comr. Harmawi said on Tuesday that the two victims were believed to be sleeping when their boarding school caught fire at 12:30 a.m. They could not get out when the fire spread and destroyed most buildings in the pesantren compound, he said.

'€œAccording to witnesses, the fire broke out in the Madinah house on the ground floor, which was unoccupied since students had returned to their home villages following the national exams. The fire then spread to the second floor, which was occupied by second graders of the junior high school,'€ he said.

Armilis, a lawyer for the pesantren, said the two victims'€™ bodies would be taken back to the boarding school before being handed over to their families.