Massive explosion at Qatar industrial plant leaves 54 injured,18 missing

An explosion caused by a technical incident has struck a factory in Qatar's Ras Laffan Industrial City, leaving 54 people injured and 18 others missing, the Interior Ministry announced.

Civil defence teams and specialised rescue units immediately responded to the explosion on Sunday evening and are continuing to handle the crisis on-site.

The ministry confirmed that the incident resulted from a technical fault during operation at one of the plants in the industrial zone, though no leak posing a threat to public safety has been recorded.

Search and rescue operations expand

Following up on the unfolding situation, the Ministry of Interior stated on its official social media channel: "The total number of injured in the incident that occurred at one of the factories in the Ras Laffan Industrial Area has reached 54 people, while the Qatari International Search and Rescue Group of the Internal Security Force (Lekhwiya), in cooperation with civil defence teams, is commencing search operations for 18 missing people."

Earlier, State-owned firm QatarEnergy clarified that the operational incident and subsequent fire occurred during the start-up of operations at the Barzan local gas supply facility.

Emergency response teams managed to contain and extinguish the fire.

Prior damage to energy infrastructure

While officials stressed that the blast was caused by an internal technical issue, the Ras Laffan hub had already been damaged in the recent war between the US, Israel and Iran, forcing Qatar to halt gas production.

Qatar, which is one of the world's leading liquefied natural gas producers alongside the US, Australia and Russia, halted LNG production on 2 March after drone strikes hit key facilities.

Further damage from attacks on 18 March was expected to cut LNG export capacity by 17 per cent and take three to five years to repair, Qatar Energy Minister Saad Al-Kaabi said at the time.

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Source: TRT