350 pupils imprisoned in India

A headmistress of an Indian primary school locked 350 pupils in a classroom for 10 hours without food or water because she found money was missing from her bag, a report said Friday.

The imprisoned pupils were eventually freed by their parents, who broke open the doors when they heard them screaming, the local media reported.

Nearly a dozen pupils fainted during the ordeal in the school, in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh. The report said the headmistress, furious over losing 500 rupees (around 11 dollars) has been suspended.

In another incident in central India, a 13-year-old schoolgirl was allegedly burnt alive by three of her classmates after she complained about the bullying of another pupil, the newspaper reported.