School evacuated in Kuwait after fire

Cairo: A fire had broken up at a school in Kuwait, prompting the evacuation of children and staff, a local newspaper has reported.

Upon arriving at the private school in the area of Jleeb Al Shuyoukh in the Farwaniya governorate, firefighters had evacuated the building and handled the blaze, said Al Anba.

Investigations showed that the fire had erupted inside a room used as a warehouse on the school roof without causing casualties.

Images posted by the paper showed thick smoke billowing from the place as firefighters were trying to put out the blaze.

Earlier this week, firefighters controlled and extinguished fires in two mosques in Al Salmiya area east of Kuwait City, reported Al Qabas newspaper. No casualties resulted from both fires the causes of which were not clear.

Last June, a blaze swept across a residential building in Mangaf area, south of Kuwait City, leaving 50 people dead in one of the worst such incidents in Kuwait. The fatalities included 45 Indians and three Filipinos.

Fire Force investigators attributed the blaze to a short electric circuit, saying it started around dawn in the room of the building guard before it spread across the six-floor residence.

The high death toll was due to inflammable partitions separating apartments and rooms on the building as well as to the closure of its rooftop, making it difficult for the residents to escape from the fire, officials said.

The tragedy prompted the Kuwaiti government to launch a relentless crackdown on violations of the building code across the country.