Kuwait building fire: Dozens of people killed | CNN

CNN
 — 

At least 49 people have been killed after a fire broke out in a building housing foreign workers in Kuwait City, state media said Wednesday citing officials.

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 added that 11 people were being treated in hospitals and police were trying to identify the victims.

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.

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

Photos of the aftermath show a blackened ground floor, with Kuwaiti security forces assessing the damage. The owner of the building has been detained and investigated for negligence, the reports added.

This is a developing story and will be updated.