Kuwait: Over 40 dead in wedding tent fire

Published August 16th, 2009 - 05:32 GMT

A fire broke out in a women's tent at a Kuwaiti wedding party on Saturday killing at least 41 people, Kuwaiti media reported. Al-Rai television channel quoted the head of Kuwait's fire brigade Jassim al-Mansouri as saying 61 people were critically wounded. On his part, the Kuwaiti Minister of Health Hilal Al-Sayer told KUNA Saturday that emergency staff has transferred 76 people with various degrees of burns to a number of hospitals.

The state news agency KUNA said 41 bodies had been recovered from the remains of the tent, in the al-Jahra district west of Kuwait City. "The number of fatalities might increase due to the large number of injuries as result of a stampede that followed the outbreak of the fire at the tent that was packed with people at the wedding," Mansouri was quoted as saying by KUNA. According to him, authorities were investigating the cause of the blaze.