Religious Police Accused of Blocking Girls’ Rescue

Government-run newspapers in Saudi Arabia have accused the country’s religious police of preventing the rescue of girls trapped in a school fire because they were not wearing the long dresses and head coverings required in public.

Fourteen girls died in the fire last Monday at a middle school in Mecca. Fifty others were injured.

Citing firefighters and police, the newspapers accused members of the religious police of blocking rescue attempts by male firefighters and paramedics because some of the girls were not wearing the mandatory Islamic dress, which covers the entire body.

The director of the religious police denied the accusations.