41 die in wedding tent inferno

THE fire at a wedding tent in Kuwait that killed 41 women and children consumed the structure in a blazing inferno lasting just three minutes, the fire department chief said yesterday.

“It was a horrific scene with bodies and many shoes stuck to the ground at the only exit, they must have trampled over one another,” said Brig Gen Jassem al-Mansouri, the day after the disaster.

He said Kuwaiti authorities were running DNA tests to identify the 35 women and six children killed in the fire, which left many victims unrecognisable.