Ex-wife suspect after wedding blaze killed 43 women and children

Forty-three women and children were killed when a fire ripped through a wedding party tent in Kuwait. The fire, on Saturday night broke out in a tent reserved for women and children. In the panic they fled and trampled one another. Most of the bodies of the thirty-five women and six children were found at the entrance to the tent, which was reduced to a metal frame.A Kuwaiti newspaper said today that the bridegroom’s ex-wife had set it deliberately. It is not known if the bride was among the dead.

The Kuwait Times today ran the headline, 'Scorned' Woman Unleashed Fury." It went on to say authorities had arrested the suspect after her maids claimed to have seen her setting fire to the tent with kerosene. Al-Qabbas similarly said the 23-year-old former wife admitted pouring petrol on the cotton tent and setting it on fire, furious at what she called her “bad treatment” by her former partner before their divorce. There was no official confirmation of the alleged confession. Firefighters said the fire, dubbed the worst civil tragedy in Kuwaiti history, swept through the marquee in less than three minutes.

About 180 women and children were celebrating the wedding party in Jahra, 50 miles west of Kuwait City. Many of those who died were killed in the stampede for the only exit. The men had been celebrated in a separate marquee as in line with the conservative culture. Some of the victims were related to people who had died in a similar tent blaze last year, said reports in the local media when two women were burnt to death and several hurt when another tent caught fire. There have been calls in the past for a ban on traditional wedding tents because of the difficulty of enforcing safety regulations. “It was a horrific scene with bodies and many shoes stuck to the ground at the only exit — they must have trampled over one another,” Brigadier General Jassem al-Mansouri, the head of the fire department, told The Times newspaper. "Most of the bodies were charred, many could not be immediately recognised. Forensic officials are working to identify the bodies."

An inquiry into what started the blaze has been called for by politicians in Kuwait City. Sheikh Jaber al-Ahmad al-Sabah, the Emir of Kuwait, ordered that no expense should be spared in efforts to treat the survivors and comfort relatives of the dead.

By Hayley Jarvis for SOS Children