Hotel blaze kills pilgrims in Saudi Arabia. At least 15 people are killed and 130 injured after fire engulfs a packed hotel in Islam s second holiest city . At least 15 people have died and around 130 were injured when a fire broke out in a hotel packed with Muslim pilgrims in the Saudi Arabian city of Medina , the local government said. At 2 : 33 pm this afternoon a fire occurred at a hotel located east of the central region , home to about 700 of pilgrims of different nationalities , the Medina Governate said in a statement . The al- Bawaba Nayouz news website quoted a Red Crescent official as saying the dead were all Egyptian . The fire resulted in the death of 15 . . . caused by fainting, choking , bleeding and cardiac arrest and breathing. We also treated 30 cases of suffocation due to the fire , Mohammed Mahmoud Kheyat , spokesman for the Saudi Red Crescent in Medina , told the website . A Medina civil defense department official , Colonel Khaled al- Juhani, told the al- Youm newspaper that more than 110 security personnel were battling to control the blaze , which was still burning at 5: 40 pm local time . He said the nationalities of the victims were unknown , but that a statment would be released later . An employee of the Egyptian embassy in Jeddah , Ahmad Zaki , told the Youm al- Sabaa newspaper that there were tens of Egyptians among the injured and killed . Zaki said maintenance work at the hotel led to an electrical fire . Medina governor , Prince Faisal bin Salman , said the government would look into the incident . Medina is a major religious destination for Muslims . The city is the burial site of the Prophet Mohammad and is Islam s second holiest city after Mecca . Al jazeera
Posted on: Sat, 08 Feb 2014 22:35:49 +0000
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