DNA TESTING
Reji Varghese said his close friend Lukose VO, 49, was staying on the sixth floor of the block. His death was reported by another worker who leapt from the second floor, breaking his leg, to escape.
“I’m still not able to come to terms with it. We didn’t believe the news when we heard about it,” said Varghese.
“I spoke to him just last week … This news is a shock.”
On Wednesday, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi promised help for those affected by the “gruesome fire tragedy”, announcing 200,000-rupee (US$2,400) payments to next of kin.
India’s junior foreign minister Kirti Vardhan Singh has flown in to help survivors and organise the repatriation of remains on an Indian air force plane.
“Some of the bodies have been charred beyond recognition, so DNA tests (are) underway to identify the victims,” he told Indian media.
In Manila, the Department of Migrant Workers said three Filipinos had died from smoke inhalation, with two more in critical condition while six escaped unharmed.
“We are in touch with the families of all the affected (migrants), including the families of those two in critical condition and the families of the three fatalities,” Migrant Workers Secretary Hans Leo J Cacdac said in a statement.
The blaze was one of the worst seen in Kuwait, which borders Iraq and Saudi Arabia and sits on about 7 per cent of the world’s known oil reserves.
In 2009, 57 people died when a Kuwaiti woman, apparently seeking revenge, set fire to a tent at a wedding party when her husband married a second wife.
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