As many as 100 firefighters from some 15 London Fire Brigade engines were deployed shortly before midnight Wednesday to put out a blaze that ripped through Talmud Torah Machzikei Hadass School for boys of the Belz Hasidic movement in Hackney, east London, local media reported.
Exhausted firefighters were going through the scene of the fire Wednesday morning, having fought it through the night.
The crews faced dangerous conditions as the ground floor had collapsed into the basement. Video clips posted on social media show the blaze engulfing the school building.
The fire is under investigation, but a Metropolitan Police source told The Daily Mirror they believed the fire had started by an electrical problem in the boiler room.
564 students are registered at the school which is open six days a week.
It is classified as an independent primary and secondary school for boys aged 3-16.
