DOHA, May 30 (Reuters) - Police in Qatar have arrested five
people including a government minister's daughter in connection
with a shopping mall fire this week that killed 19 people,
including 13 children, the state news agency QNA said on
Wednesday.
The Gulf Arab state's attorney-general ordered the detention
of the upscale Villagio Mall's owner as well as Imran al-Kuwari,
daughter of the culture minister and owner of a nursery where
the children and four teachers perished on Monday.
The others arrested were mall officials, including the
shopping centre's chief manager and the head of security, QNA
said. It was not immediately clear what charges would be filed.
At a public vigil held on Tuesday, Culture Minister Hamad
bin Abdulaziz al-Kuwari told reporters that his daughter was
"the saddest person on earth."
Qatar has been investigating the blaze because of reports
that security staff at the mall reacted slowly and in a chaotic
fashion. Several people at the complex told Reuters that fire
alarms did not go off or rang only faintly.
The blaze erupted in the nursery on the first floor of the
mall in a hallway accessible only via a small passage with no
emergency fire exit. Dense smoke and extreme heat created a
"death trap" in the corridor as the staircase collapsed,
according to the interior minister.
Among the dead were two-year-old triplets from New Zealand.
(Reporting by Regan Doherty; Editing by Mark Heinrich)