A fire swept through a shopping mall in Qatar's capital city, Doha, on Monday, killing 19 people, 13 of them children, a government official said.
The fatalities at the Villagio shopping mall included seven girls, six boys, four teachers and two members of the civil defense, said the minister of state for interior affairs, H.E Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al Thani, in a posting on the ministry's Facebook page.
Another 17 people were injured, four of them children, he said. Most of the other injured are civil defense firefighters, he said.
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What a terrible tragedy. I can't imagine the pain & suffering, the affected families must be going through. My thoughts and prayers are with them.
The 13 pre-school children and their 4 teachers were located in a Qatari owned nursery school (Gympanzee Nursery School) in the mall. Why were the kids/teachers not evacuated as soon as the fire alarm sounded? Was there an alarm/ sprinkler system?? Anecdotal reports from residents indicate that mall safety was given lip service & largely ignored… Will the Mall landlord be held accountable, if the post incident investigation shows this to be true? What are European embassies doing to enhance safeguards in Qatar – a country which is comprised of 75% expats?
This is awful.
My thoughts and my sympathy to all of the families involved in this tragedy.
Those poor babies,my thoughts and prayers go out to all the family members involved.
well that certainly puttah new spin on term crispy critters...