Almost seven students have been killed and 10 others taken to hospital after a fire broke out at a school in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, officials said.

The fire, which broke out early on Saturday morning, burnt down one dormitory of Moi Girls school, the education secretary told reporters outside the high school.

“A fire broke out at the school at 2:00am in the morning in one of the dormitories. It is very, very sad,” Fred Matiangi said.

“This is a school that’s got 1,183 students and as you know is one of our top schools in the country and a school that we are very proud of.”

The education secretary said it was too early to know what caused the fire and that investigations were under way.

“We have 10 students who have been admitted to hospital right now, two of them with serious injuries. We have taken a decision this morning to close the school for two weeks because we want to conduct thorough investigations on what happened,” Matiangi added.