A Nigerian woman, three Canadians and a Pakistani are among at least 10 people killed in a fire accident inside a Saudi Arabian residential compound.
Over 200 people were also injured in the fire outbreak involving workers of the Saudi national oil company, Aramco, in Khobar town.
Though the identity of the Nigerian and three Canadians who died in the outbreak had not been made public, their nationality has been confirmed.
According to AP, Ali bin Saad al-Qahtani, a civil defence spokesman for the kingdom’s eastern province, provided the update in comments carried by the official Saudi Press Agency early Monday.
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“He said a total of 10 people died and 259 were injured. The civil defence directorate previously said 11 people were killed.”
Al-Qahtani did not provide the nationalities of the other five people killed in the incident.
“A preliminary investigation suggests a short circuit in an electrical transformer in the building’s basement sparked the blaze, which quickly spread through 130 cars parked in the basement,” he said.
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The complex, known as Radium, is a gated community of eight six-storey buildings with a total of 486 residential units as well as swimming pools and other leisure facilities, according to Aramco’s website.
Saudi Aramco says it employs more than 61,000 workers worldwide from 77 countries. Foreigners represent around a third of the kingdom’s population of 30.8 million.
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