Dozens killed in fire at Kuwait building housing foreign workers

CNN:

At least 49 people are dead after a fire ripped through a residential building housing foreign workers in Kuwait on Wednesday, according to Kuwait’s Ministry of Interior.

Video circulating on social media and geolocated by CNN showed the moment the blaze engulfed the six-story building in the Mafreg area of the city. Around 150 people were living in the block when fire broke out on the ground floor, police official Sayyed Hasan Ebrahim told Kuwaiti state television.

The cause of the fire, which has been contained, is unknown but the presence of more than 20 cooking gas tanks and flammable material in the overcrowded block caused it to spread quickly, Ebrahim said.

Most of the fatalities were due to suffocation, Gen. Eid Rashed, from the police criminal forensic department, told state television. He warned the death toll could rise, adding that 11 people were being treated in hospitals. Authorities had identified three of the bodies, he said, but did not say if their families had been notified.

A fire department official said the large number of floors and escape corridors made it difficult for the trapped residents to escape the burning building.

Indian nationals were among those killed, according to the Indian foreign ministry. The country’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi called the fire a “mishap” and described it as “saddening.”

“My thoughts are with all those who have lost their near and dear ones. I pray that the injured recover at the earliest,” Modi said on X.

Modi also directed his government to “extend all possible assistance” to the Kuwait authorities. India’s minister of external affairs is traveling to Kuwait to oversee relief efforts and repatriate deceased Indian citizens.

India’s Ambassador to Kuwait, Adarsh Swaika visited several of the injured in hospital and the site of the fire.