No Bangladeshi died in the gas tank explosion at a restaurant in Qatar’s capital Doha on Thursday. The explosion killed at least 12 people.
The foreign ministry spokesperson Md Shameem Ahsan, however, said that one Bangladeshi was among the 32 injured.
He was released from hospital after treatment. Those killed were from India, Philippines, and Nepal. One remained unidentified. “Our ambassador told us no Bangladesh national died,” Ahsan said.Earlier news agency Reuters quoting Qatari media reported that the gas tank exploded at a Turkish restaurant which was ‘accidental’.
It said the incident was the deadliest in Qatar since May 2012, when at least 19 foreign nationals, including 13 children, were killed by a fire in an upscale shopping mall.
Major General Saad bin Jassim al-Khalifi, Qatar’s head of public security, in a news conference said preliminary investigations suggested a gas tank exploded, starting a fire leading to the collapse of part of the building.
But investigations were continuing to discover why the gas tank exploded.
“It was a very big blast,” he said. “It blew away cars and shrapnel were scattered 50 to 100 meters away.”
The gas- and oil-rich Arab Gulf state has one of the world’s highest standards of living. The bulk of the 2 million population of Qatar are foreigners.
Nearly 150,000 Bangladeshi workers are currently working there.-bdnews24.com
