Groom’s ex-wife admits starting Kuwait inferno

THE former wife of the groom at a Kuwait wedding where a raging fire killed 43 women and children has confessed to starting the blaze as an act of revenge, local newspapers reported yesterday.

Al-Qabas newspaper said the 23-year-old woman had told police she used petrol to torch a wedding tent packed with women and children to avenge her ex-husband’s “bad treatment” of her before their divorce.

Interior ministry spokesman Colonel Mohammad al-Saber told state-run Kuwait Television that Saturday’s fire – which engulfed the tent in just minutes and triggered a panicked stampede – was an act of arson.