12 die in gas tank blast at restaurant in Qatar

Twelve people were killed, including two children, and about 30 wounded when a gas tank exploded at a Turkish restaurant in the Qatari capital off Doha on Thursday, authorities in the state reported.

By (Reuters)

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Published: Sat 1 Mar 2014, 12:50 AM

Last updated: Sat 4 Apr 2015, 5:14 AM

Qatar Prime Minister Shaikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al Thani (centre) inspects the damage outside a Turkish restaurant following a gas explosion in Doha on Thursday. — Reuters

A security source said the blast at the Istanbul restaurant was accidental. Another security source at the scene said two Asian children were among the dead.

Major General Saad bin Jassim Al Khalifi, Qatar’s head of public security, said Arabs, Asians and one Qatari were among the dead and wounded. Preliminary investigations suggested that a gas tank exploded, setting off a fire and causing part of the building to collapse, he told a news conference. But investigations were continuing to discover what caused the gas tank to explode.

UAE leaders send condolences ABU DHABI — The President, His Highness Shaikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, has sent a cable of condolences to the Amir of Qatar, His Highness Shaikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, on the blast in Doha which resulted in a number of causalties. He also expressed his heartfelt condolences to the families of the victims and wished speedy recovery for the injured. His Highness Shaikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, and General Shaikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, have sent similar cables to the Amir of Qatar. — Wam

“It was a very big blast,” he said. “It blew away cars and the shrapnel scattered 50 or 100 metres away.”

Chunks of masonry, metal debris and shattered glass lay outside the restaurant in a northwestern district of the city. Cars apparently crumpled by the explosion stood nearby.

The incident was the deadliest in Qatar since May 2012, when at least 19 foreign nationals were killed by a fire in a shopping mall.

The area around the Istanbul restaurant is on the outskirts of the capital near Landmark mall, a well-known shopping complex usually busy area with families. “I was eating in a restaurant close by and suddenly heard a big (blast) and everything around me exploded,” Abdul-Rahman Abdul-Kareem, an Indian driver who was eating in a restaurant nearby, said at Hamad hospital. “I have too much damage now, my legs are broken and my head is open.”