Victims of Dorm Collapse Tribute

A gas explosion killed at least 15 students and injured more than 25 others, wrecking a dormitory at a girls' school on Friday, Turkish broadcasters said.

Up to 15 students were feared trapped under the rubble of the building in southern Turkey, Konya Governor Osman Aydin told state Anatolian news agency.

The dormitory, flattened like a house of cards, was in the province of Konya and was being used for students aged eight to 16 who were taking part in a course of Islamic study.

"There may still be 10-15 students under the rubble," Aydin said.

Merve Avci, a 13-year-old student who suffered slight injuries, told reporters she had smelled gas coming from downstairs to the upper floors, and then felt the explosion.

"I was in the uncollapsed part of the building with five of my friends immediately after the explosion, and we felt flames rising from the downstairs to upper floors," she said, according to Anatolian news agency.

"Before the explosion, I heard one of our teachers saying that a gas hose was not attached to its proper place in the kitchen," Avci said.

At the scene, dozens of men wielding pick axes and hammers dug at the rubble. Television footage also showed injured girls being carried from a minibus into a hospital in a nearby town.

Medical rescue teams were at the scene and had pulled out one of three girls they had established contact with under the rubble.

"We think the collapse was caused by a gas canister explosion in the building, given the burns on the injured," Konya health service official Galip Sef said, according to Anatolian.

Anatolian said the three-storey building belonged to a religious foundation.

Aydin said the blast occurred around 5 a.m. (3 a.m. British time) in the village of Balcilar in a mountainous district of Taskent, at the southern tip of Turkey's central province of Konya.