10 foreign workers perish in Abu Dhabi fire

TEN foreign workers have died in a fire that hit a tyre shop in Abu Dhabi, apparently trapping the labourers in a warehouse used illegally for accommodation, local media said Saturday.

Eight others were injured in the blaze that gutted the two-storey building in the Mussaffah district on Friday, Gulf News daily reported, saying that the makeshift hostel above the shop was originally a storage area.

Police said the victims were of different nationalities and that the owner of the building was arrested, the paper said.

An investigation into the cause of the fire is underway.

“The injured were given first aid by medics and then taken to hospital while police and firefighters began the grizzly task of recovering the 10 bodies,” Abu Dhabi-based newspaper The National reported.

Fires at warehouses in industrial zones are common in the United Arab Emirates and authorities across the Gulf nation continue to crack down on illegal accommodation of foreign labourers.

The UAE is home to millions of foreign workers, mostly from South Asian countries.