KUWAIT CITY (AFP) – Most of the victims in a deadly blaze that engulfed a block housing immigrant workers were from India, Kuwait’s Foreign Minister said yesterday, raising the death toll to 50.
Three Filipinos were among the dead, Philippines officials said, after the fire sent black smoke billowing through the six-storey building south of Kuwait City.
Dozens more were injured in the fire in Mangaf, south of Kuwait City, which broke out around dawn on Wednesday at the ground level of the block housing nearly 200 workers.
“One of the injured died” overnight, Foreign Minister Abdullah Al-Yahya told reporters, after 49 people were declared dead on Wednesday.
“The majority of the dead are Indians,” he added. “There are other nationalities but I don’t remember exactly.”
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the country is “doing everything possible to assist those affected by this gruesome fire tragedy”, in a post on X late on Wednesday.
Next of kin will receive payments of INR200,000 (USD2,400), Modi’s office announced.
