The charred remains of Thai boarding school after a fire tore through dormitories killing 18 students aged between five and 12

Photos of the Thai boarding school where 18 girls died in a fire reveal the trail of destruction the inferno left.

Charred debris litters the floors and smoke blackened walls show where flames blazed out of the windows of the Pitakiatwittaya School in the Wiang Pa Pao district of Chiang Rai in northern Thailand on Sunday night

at around 11pm.

Eighteen schoolgirls, aged five to 12, had been asleep when the blaze ripped through the building and died after becoming trapped in their second-storey dormitory.

Twenty others were rescued through windows by fire fighters who had propped ladders up against the building.

The families of those killed have been asked to travel to the area to identify their daughters' bodies, some of which have been charred beyond recognition.   

It is not yet known what caused the fire. Local police are investigating the incident while trying to account for all of the 38 girls in the building at the time. 

The parents of those who died are being asked to travel to Chiang Rai to identify their charred bodies. 

Some, police warn, have been burned beyond recognition. 

'The fire broke out at 11pm on Sunday. Seventeen girls were killed and two are still missing, with five injured,' Police Colonel Prayad Singsin, Commander of Wiang Pa Pao district in Chiang Rai said.

'The fire is out, but the cause of the blaze is still under investigation.  

 
There were 38 students inside the dormitory when the fire broke out.  Some were not yet asleep so they escaped,' deputy governor of the province Arkom Sukapan added.

The school is run by a Christian charity which provides free education to local hill tribe children, CNN reported. 

It has been open for five years and has around 140 students. 

On Monday local police were trying to track down the families of those who survived the fire. 

Officers posted photographs of their school account cards on Facebook in the hope of spreading news to concerned parents.  

'But others were asleep and could not escape resulting in the large number of casualties.'   

Fire fighters searched debris at the site on Monday morning for the two unaccounted girls who are now feared dead. 

‘We are working hard to find any trace of the two missing girls,’ said Mr Sawang Momdee, chief disaster officer of the Chiang Rai district.

The bodies of those who died were lined up on beds at a nearby hospital for identification. They had been numbered with sheets of paper. - dailymail