AT LEAST 31 Guatemalan girls were burnt to death in a locked children’s home dormitory on Wednesday after trying to flee sexual abuse there.

Dozens more were taken to hospitals in the capital Guatemala City, many with severe burns. Others remained missing and bodies could not be identified as they were so badly burnt.

Grief-stricken parents and other relatives desperately searched for their children and demanded answers, amid suspicions that arson was to blame for the horrific tragedy.