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13-06-2024
KUWAIT CITY: At least 49 people have been killed in a fire at a residential building in the Kuwaiti city of Mangaf, the country’s Interior Ministry says.
Video shared on social media showed flames engulfing the lower part of the building and thick black smoke billowing from the upper floors.
Many of the casualties are said to be foreign workers who lived there.
Deputy Prime Minister Sheikh Fahad Yusuf al-Sabah accused property owners of greed and said violations of building standards had led to the tragedy.
“Unfortunately the greed of the property owners is what led to this,” Sheikh al-Sabah, who is also acting interior minister, told Reuters news agency.
“They violate regulations and this is the result of the violations.”
Interior Ministry spokesman Maj-Gen Eid al-Oweihan told state TV that the fire was reported at 06:00 local time (03:00 GMT) on Wednesday.
He said it was now under control and rescue efforts were continuing.
Local media reports say the building housed 196 workers and there are suggestions that it may have been overcrowded.
A senior police officer told state TV that there were a “large number” of people in the building at the time of the fire.
“Dozens were rescued, but unfortunately there were many deaths as a result of inhaling smoke from the fire,” he said, adding that warnings were often issued about overcrowding in this type of accommodation.
No details have so far been given about the workers’ countries of origin or the nature of their employment.
However, unconfirmed reports have appeared in Indian media that most of the victims are from the sub-continent.
Indian Foreign Minister S Jaishankar said in a post on X that embassy officials had visited the injured in hospital. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, also on X, sent condolences to the families of those who had died.
Two-thirds of the Kuwaiti population is made up of foreign workers and the country is highly dependent on migrant labor, especially in the construction and domestic sectors.
Human rights groups have regularly raised concern over their living conditions.
The building, reportedly owned by a businessman from Kerala, housed 195 migrant laborers mostly from India, according to Onmanorama.
“We always alert and warn against” cramming too many workers into housing accommodation, the police said.
The fire has been brought under control and authorities are combing the area for evidence.
Deputy prime minister Sheikh Fahad Yusuf Saud Al-Sabah visited the site and ordered an inquiry into the fire incident.
The building’s owner has been detained pending an investigation into potential negligence, he said.
Kuwait, like other Gulf nations, is host to hundreds of thousands of Indian migrant workers, who often remit much of what they earn to families back home and live in extremely crampt conditions.
Indian nationals make up for 21 per cent of Kuwait’s 4.2 million population and nearly 30 per cent of its workforce.
Wednesday’s incident is believed to be one of the worst fire tragedies witnessed in Kuwait. In 2009, at least 57 people died when a woman allegedly seeking revenge set fire to a tent at a wedding party. (Int’l News Desk)
