AHMADI, KUWAIT // An explosion caused by a gas leak tore through a Shia prayer hall last night, injuring four of the worshippers and trapping another four under the rubble. "It's a gas explosion," said Sheikh Jaber al Sabah, the minister of the interior, speaking at the site of the devastated two-storey husseineyah, where the Shiites had last week celebrated the religious festival of Ashura. Ahmadi is in the south of the country.
"We took them from under the rubble. I spoke to two of them," he said. "They are not buried; they are under the rubble. There's a difference. I hope in a few hours they will finish the job." The acting director for the Kuwaiti fire department, Brig Ameen Abdeen, said: "There is communication between the fire department and the people under the rubble. There were wooden shelves and they're hiding under the shelves."
Rescue workers, he said, were waiting for heavy equipment. Tracing dogs were at the scene but not on the pile of rubble. Dozens of rescue workers with sound equipment to help locate the four people were at the ready. Mr Abdeen said eight people were in a large kitchen, cooking for the rest of the worshippers. An entire corner of the large building collapsed. Smashed cars and debris littered the surrounding area and a large crane loomed over the site, ready to remove the rubble.
jcalderwood@thenational.ae
