KUWAIT: The death toll from the tragic fire that engulfed a workers' building in Mangaf has reached 49, the Interior Ministry said in a statement, adding that strict measures will be taken against building owners who violate the law. Criminal evidence department personnel are currently working on identifying the victims on site and revealing the cause of the fire, the ministry added.

“Unfortunately, we received a report of a fire at... exactly 6:00 am (0300 GMT) in the Mangaf area,” Major General Eid Al-Owaihan, head of the interior ministry’s General Department of Criminal Evidence, said at the site. “As for the deaths in the building behind me, the number has exceeded 35 so far.”

Images from the scene showed soot blackening the exterior of the six-storey building which housed 196 workers, according to information given to the minister by their employer. Oil-rich Kuwait has large numbers of foreign workers, many of them from South and Southeast Asia, and mostly working in construction or service industries. According to a source in the General Fire Department, the victims suffocated from rising smoke after the fire broke out on the ground floor. Forensic teams are working at the site and have identified three bodies so far, Owaihan said.

Interior Minister Sheikh Fahad Al-Yousuf Al-Sabah

Kuwaiti security forces gather outside a building which was ingulfed by fire, in Kuwait City, on June 12, 2024. - More than 35 people were killed and dozens injured in a building fire in an area heavily populated with foreign workers in Kuwait, the interior ministry said. — Photo by Yasser Al-Zayyat

Kuwaiti security forces gather at a building which was ingulfed by fire, in Kuwait City, on June 12, 2024. - More than 35 people were killed and dozens injured in a building fire in an area heavily populated with foreign workers in Kuwait, the interior ministry said. — Photo by Yasser Al-Zayyat

Kuwaiti security forces stand outside a building which was ingulfed by fire, in Kuwait City, on June 12, 2024. - More than 35 people were killed and dozens injured in a building fire in an area heavily populated with foreign workers in Kuwait, the interior ministry said.— Photo by Yasser Al-Zayyat

Kuwaiti firefighters and security forces gather outside a building which was ingulfed by fire, in Kuwait City, on June 12, 2024. - More than 35 people were killed and dozens injured in a building fire in an area heavily populated with foreign workers in Kuwait, the interior ministry said. — Photo by Yasser Al-Zayyat

Kuwaiti security forces stand outside a building which was ingulfed by fire, in Kuwait City, on June 12, 2024. - More than 35 people were killed and dozens injured in a building fire in an area heavily populated with foreign workers in Kuwait, the interior ministry said. — Photo by Yasser Al-Zayyat

Kuwaiti firefighters and ambulances gather outside a building which was ingulfed by fire, in Kuwait City, on June 12, 2024. - More than 35 people were killed and dozens injured in a building fire in an area heavily populated with foreign workers in Kuwait, the interior ministry said. — Photo by Yasser Al-Zayyat

The nationalities of the victims have not been announced but the Indian ambassador, when contacted by AFP, said he was at the hospital visiting survivors. India’s Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar posted on X that he was “deeply shocked by the news” and offered “deepest condolences to the families of those who tragically lost their lives”.The building’s owner has been detained in an investigation into potential negligence, Interior Minister Sheikh Fahd Al-Yousef said as he visited the scene.

Any properties found to have violated safety regulations will be evacuated immediately, he warned.“We will work to address the issue of labour overcrowding and neglect,” the minister said. “We will detain the owner of the property where the fire broke out until legal procedures are completed.”The blaze is one of the worst seen in Kuwait, which borders Iraq and Saudi Arabia and sits on about seven percent of the world’s oil reserves.

In 2009, 57 people died when a Kuwaiti woman, apparently seeking revenge, set fire to a tent at a wedding party when her husband married a second wife. Nusra al-Enezi threw petrol on the tent and set it alight as people celebrated inside. She was hanged in 2017 for the crime, whose victims included many women and children. — AFP