2 Pinoys among 12 dead in Qatar restaurant gas explosion

(Updated 6:00 a.m., Feb. 28) DOHA - Twelve people including two Filipinos and two children were killed on Thursday when a gas tank exploded at a Turkish restaurant in the Qatari capital Doha, authorities in the Gulf Arab state reported.

About 30 others, including two Filipinos, were injured in the blast at the Istanbul Restaurant that one security source said was accidental.

Qatar officials have also ruled out terrorism in the blast, radio dzBB's Qatar stringer Manny Flores reported early Friday.

 

The report cited information from the Philippine Overseas Labor Office indicating one of the fatalities was a worker in a grocery store.

 

Both Filipino fatalities' bodies remained at a morgue as of Friday, the report said.

 

The two wounded are in the intensive care unit of Hamad Hospital, the report added.

 

On the other hand, the report also said one of the wounded asked Philippine officials not to notify relatives at home as the Philippine national's mother has a medical condition.

 

Citing initial reports, Flores said authorities have yet to determine if the two Filipino fatalities were inside the restaurant or were just passing by when the explosion occurred.

 

The two wounded Filipinos were reportedly just passing by the area and were hit by debris.

Major General Saad bin Jassim al-Khalifi, Qatar's head of public security, said non-Qatari Arabs, Asians and one Qatari were among the dead and wounded.

 

Another security source at the scene said two Asian children were among the dead.

 

Preliminary investigation suggested 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 why the gas tank exploded.

 

"It was a very big blast," he said. "It blew away cars and shrapnel was scattered 50 to 100 meters away."

 

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

 

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.

 

In a separate incident on Thursday, medics and security sources at the Hamad medical city in Doha said dozens of people were hurt in the afternoon due to a gas leak at a chemical plant in an industrial area near Doha.

 

They gave no figures or details on their condition, but said helicopters were dispatched to fly victims of the leak to the Hamad medical centre quickly as ambulances had been caught in heavy traffic caused by the restaurant incident.

 

The gas- and oil-rich Gulf Arab state with an estimated national population of at least 200,000 has one of the highest standards of living in the world. The bulk of the 2 million population of Qatar are foreigners.

 

The restaurant is on the outskirts of the capital near Landmark mall, a well-known shopping complex usually busy 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, told Reuters at Hamad hospital. "I have too much damage now, my legs are broken and my head is (wounded)." — with Reuters/ELR, GMA News

Medics gather near a Turkish restaurant following a gas explosion in Doha February 27, 2014. Twelve people were killed, including two children, and about 30 wounded when a gas tank exploded at the Turkish restaurant in the Qatari capital off Doha on Thursday, authorities in the Gulf Arab state reported. Reuters