At least nine killed in fire in Kuwait villa

A fire which broke out at a villa housing expatriate workers in Kuwait on Thursday killed nine Asian residents including children and injured 23, a Fire Service Directorate spokesman said.

Six people, at least one of whom was a child, suffocated to death after a blaze tore through a house that had been subdivided into multiple residences in Farwaniya, a suburb 15 km (10 miles) south of Kuwait City, and three others died from injuries in hospital, the spokesman said.

He did not give details of the victims' nationalities or identities. He said one firefighter had been seriously injured. Expatriate workers, mostly from India, make up slightly more than two-thirds of Kuwait's 4.3 million population.