40 Indians were murdered in a fire in Kuwait; the deputy prime minister blames "greed"; Modi seeks an immediate meeting | Top 10

The building, which housed low-paid blue-collar workers mostly from Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and northern Indian regions, was the scene of the tragic Kuwait fire.

A six-story structure in Kuwait that housed several laborers caught fire, resulting in the deaths of at least 40 Indian nationals and numerous injuries. The majority of the fatalities, according to officials, were caused by smoke inhalation while the occupants were sleeping when the fire started early on Wednesday. On one of the building's lower levels, in the Mangaf neighborhood in Kuwait's southern Ahmadi Governorate, a kitchen caught fire. The majority of the dead, whose ages ranged from 20 to 50, were from north Indian states including Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and others, according to Arab Times. The fire incident, according to Kuwait's deputy prime minister and interior minister Sheikh Fahad Al-Yousuf Al-Sabah, was a "result of the greed of the company and building owners." The NBTC organization, purportedly controlled by Malayali millionaire KG Abraham, rents the property. Blue-collar laborers in the Gulf who are paid little sometimes live in cramped quarters.

Updates about the fire incident in Kuwait are as follows:

Senior officials have been asked to an urgent meeting by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to examine the issue. Following the meeting, Kirti Vardhan Singh, the Minister of State (MoS) for External Affairs, informed media that he would be heading to Kuwait.

The ministry of external affairs spokesperson had earlier stated that Kirti Vardhan Singh was urgently heading to Kuwait at the prime minister's request to supervise relief efforts and work with local authorities to arrange for the prompt return of the deceased victims' mortal remains.

An emergency hotline number, +965-65505246, has been established by the Indian Embassy in Kuwait. Please contact them for updates.

Adarsh Swaika, the Indian ambassador to Kuwait, paid visits to the hospitals where the casualties were hospitalized as well as the Mangaf incident scene. He noted that for any required action or emergency medical treatment, the Embassy was in continuous communication with the appropriate Kuwaiti law enforcement, fire service, and health authorities.

Over fifty Indian citizens were admitted to Al-Adan Hospital, Farwaniya Hospital, Mubarak Al-Kabeer Hospital, and Jahra Hospital, as reported by the Indian Embassy in Kuwait.

At least 11 of the dead, according to the head of an expatriate organization who was present at the scene of the fire, were from Kerala.

Pinarayi Vijayan, the chief minister of Kerala, has asked External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar to provide the required instructions to the Indian Embassy so that it may coordinate relief and rescue efforts by contacting the Kuwaiti government.

The infractions of packing a residential building with a lot of personnel inside have drawn criticism. According to the Kuwait Times, the deputy prime minister of Kuwait has given the police orders to detain the building's owner, janitor, and owner of the firm that employs the workers.

The deputy prime minister said, "What transpired today is a result of the company's and building owners' greed," and he directed Kuwait Municipality and the Public Authority for Manpower to take prompt measures to prevent similar infractions.

A number of opposition figures, such as Mamata Banerjee, the chief minister of West Bengal, and Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, expressed sorrow over the occurrence and asked the government to provide the victims and their families every support available.