Doha: At least 12 people were killed and 32 others injured in an explosion Thursday at a Turkish restaurant adjacent to a petrol station in Qatar's capital Doha.
[Qatar's Prime Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa al-Thani (C) inspects the damage outside a Turkish restaurant following a gas explosion in Doha February 27, 2014. REUTERS/Stringer]
According to a source at the Ambulance Service Department, a burst gas cylinder was to blame for the blast, which happened today at Istanbul restaurant next to a petrol station, the Qatar News Agency reported.
The condition of three of the injured was reported to be critical.
When IANS contacted the Indian embassy in Doha over phone, an official said details were awaited.
"We know that there was a blast but we do not have any information about whether Indians are among the victims," he said.
Al Jazeera reported that one of the fatalities is from the Philippines.
"It was a huge explosion," public security chief Major General Saad bin Jassim al-Khleifi told a press conference, adding that the gas tank had caught on fire before it exploded.
Footage showed paramedics carrying a covered body past rubble strewn some 50m from the building, whose roof had caved in.
Pictures posted on Twitter showed several damaged cars.
A witness said police had closed off the area.
Nineteen people were killed in a May 2012 blaze at a major Doha mall, including 13 children and four supervisors at a nursery located within the shopping centre.
Qatar is home to around 600,000 expatriate Indians, many of them blue collar workers.
More details are awaited with the Gulf nation's interior ministry expected to address the press.
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