Seven US college students die in beach house fire

WILMINGTON, N.C, Oct 29 (Reuters) Seven South Carolina college students were killed and six were injured when a fire swept through a beach home in a US resort community, officials said.

Police in Ocean Isle Beach, North Carolina, received an emergency call at 1631 IST, the town said in a statement. When rescue services got there two minutes later, the house was completely engulfed in flames, according to the statement yesterday.

University of South Carolina officials said they believed the six injured and six of the dead were students at the university.

The seventh dead student was from Clemson University, Vice President for Student Affairs Dennis Pruitt told a news conference.

Pruitt said the university was helping North Carolina officials identify the dead.

Ocean Isle Beach has about 425 year-around residents, according to its Web site. It is located on a 11-km-long barrier beach on the southern end of North Carolina's Atlantic shore, about 50 km north of the resort community of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.

The injured were treated and released at Brunswick Community Hospital, hospital spokeswoman Amy Meyers said.

REUTERS SZ PM0454