At least 10 people, including nine Indians, were killed in a building fire in Maldives. The fire originated from a ground-floor vehicle repair garage, a report said. At least nine Indians were killed and several others injured after a fire swept through a building where foreign workers were lodged in the Maldives capital Male on Thursday, AFP reported.
A total of 10 bodies were recovered from the upper floor of a building destroyed in the fire. The fire originated from a ground-floor vehicle repair garage, the report said.”We have found 10 bodies,” a fire service official told AFP, adding that it took them about four hours to put out the fire.
The Indian High Commission in Maldives expressed grief over the incident and said they are in close contact with the Maldivian authorities.”We are deeply saddened by the tragic fire incident in Malé which has caused loss of lives, including reportedly of Indian nationals,” the high commission said in a tweet.
Meanwhile, the National Disaster Management Authority of Maldives said that an evacuation centre has been set up in a nearby stadium. “NDMA has established an evacuation center in Maafannu Stadium for those displaced and affected by the fire in Male’. Arrangements are being made to provide relief assistance and support,” it said in a tweet.
Foreign workers are said to make up about half of Male’s 250,000-strong population and mostly hail from Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. The poor living conditions for foreign workers were brought to light during the Covid pandemic when the infection spread three times faster among foreign workers compared with local residents.
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