A fire broke out in the Persian Gulf state of Kuwait on Wednesday in a building housing dozens of low-income workers, many of them Indian immigrants, killing at least 49 people and injuring dozens more, the state news agency reported.
According to the Kuwait National News Agency, the fire broke out in the morning in the coastal area of Mangaf, about half an hour’s drive from the center of the capital Kuwait.
Kuwaiti authorities have detained the building’s owner for questioning to investigate the cause of the fire and try to determine whether “any defects or negligence” played a role, the state news agency reported. Authorities also pledged a campaign to search for and crack down on violations of building regulations and said the cause of the fire was under investigation.
Kuwait’s Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister Sheikh Fahad Youssef Al Sabah, speaking to reporters at the scene, blamed the tragedy on corporate greed and said the boss of the company that employed the workers would also be detained, according to Reuters and Kuwaiti newspapers.
The high death toll from the fires highlights Low-income migrants in the Gulf StatesForeigners make up about two-thirds of Kuwait’s population. Many Low-wage workers Coming from South Asian countries, they work in a variety of essential jobs including construction, food service and street cleaning.
Kuwait’s Public Authority for Manpower, which oversees labor regulations, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Indian Embassy in Kuwait said on social media that many of the workers affected by the fire were migrants from India. India’s ambassador to Kuwait, Adarsh Svaykar, visited several hospitals on Wednesday where dozens of injured workers were taken. Its posts.
India’s Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said he was “deeply shocked” by the news of the fire.
“We are awaiting further information,” Jaishankar said. On social media“Our embassy will provide its full assistance to all concerned parties in this matter.”
Kuwaiti newspapers published a video showing a seven-storey building engulfed in flames, with black smoke billowing from windows on the first and second floors.
Another video released by Kuwaiti newspapers showed Sheikh Fahd asking an unidentified man at the fire scene who lived in the building. The man told him there were 196 people living in the building.
Officials from the municipality that oversees the area have been suspended pending investigation, Kuwait’s state news agency reported. Building codes in Gulf countries are often laxly enforced.
“In a building like this, you are supposed to go to the roof, but unfortunately the door to the roof was locked,” Col. Sayyed Hassan Mousavi, an official with the Kuwaiti Fire Force, told local television.
Instead, he said, the workers were overwhelmed by the fumes.
The building’s sign identified it as a worker camp for NBTC Group, a Kuwait-based contracting company with interests in construction, industry, logistics and related fields. Calls to the company went unanswered on Wednesday. An employee at the company’s office said staff had been detained by officials earlier in the day.
Yasmena Amurra There have also been reports from Kuwait.
