An exterior view a residential building after a fire broke out in Mangaf area, southern Ahmadi governorate, Kuwait, 12 June 2024. EFE-EPA/NOUFAL IBRAHIM
An exterior view a residential building after a fire broke out in Mangaf area, southern Ahmadi governorate, Kuwait, 12 June 2024. EFE-EPA/NOUFAL IBRAHIM

35 dead, 15 injured in building fire in southern Kuwait

Cairo, June 12 (EFE).- At least 35 people died and another 15 sustained injuries of varying degrees in a building fire in southern Kuwait on Wednesday, officials said.

The fire broke out on Wednesday morning in Manqaf district, located in the Ahmadi governate, south of the Kuwaiti capital.

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More than 35 people died in the building while the 15 injured were taken to hospitals, the director of the interior ministry’s forensic evidence department, Gen. Eid Al-Qwaihan, told Kuwait TV, state news agency KUNA reported.

Al-Qwaihan said that the fire was under control and rescue operations by medical emergency teams and firefighters were still underway.

A Kuwaiti policeman stands in front of a residential building after a fire broke out in Mangaf area, southern Ahmadi governorate, Kuwait, 12 June 2024. EFE-EPA/NOUFAL IBRAHIM

Three of the victims had been identified and efforts were being made to identify the rest, he added.

Images broadcast by several local media show columns of smoke rising from a six-story building.

Fires are frequent in Kuwait in the summer months due to high temperatures that sometimes reach 50 degrees Celsius.

Kuwait has a population of about 4.2 million people, two thirds of whom are immigrants and expatriates, mostly from Asia, working in the small but wealthy Persian Gulf country. EFE

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