Ex-wife confesses to Kuwait wedding fire: report

The ex-wife of the groom at a Kuwait wedding party that turned into tragedy when a fierce fire engulfed a tent has confessed to starting the blaze, a local newspaper reported on Monday.

Al-Qabas said the 23-year-old woman had confessed to police that she used petrol to torch the packed wedding tent on fire to avenge her ex-husband's "bad treatment" of her before their divorce.

There was no immediate official confirmation of the report.

A total of 43 women and children have now perished in the inferno which began on Saturday night in a tent reserved for women at the wedding party in Jahra, west of Kuwait City, fire chief General Jassem al-Mansuri told AFP.

Ninety other people were injured in the blaze, which destroyed the packed tent in just minutes in the deadliest civilian disaster in the modern history of the Gulf state.

Mansuri said on Sunday that most of the bodies were charred beyond recognition and that forensic officials were working to identify the victims.

Similar incident

The Kuwait Times said some of the victims were relatives of people who had perished in a similar incident in Jahra last year, when two women were killed and several others wounded.

Jahra lies 50 kilometers (30 miles) west of the capital and has a population of around 500,000, the overwhelming majority of whom are tribes people.

Most wedding parties in the conservative Muslim Gulf state are segregated in line with local tradition.

Sixteen of the dead were buried on Sunday while forensics officials were still busy trying to establish the identities of the other victims. At least seven of the dead are children.

Of the 90 wounded, about five remain in critical condition with severe burns.

Medical officials said that specialized medical teams from Germany and Britain will arrive on Monday to treat the injured.

The government of the oil-rich state has formed a high-level committee to investigate the incident amid sharp criticism by lawmakers that authorities were too slow in the rescue operations.

A number of MPs have demanded a probe into why authorities failed to apply strict safety and security rules for wedding tents.

The interior ministry has advised citizens against setting up tents in residential areas because that would obstruct rescue operations.

Emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah expressed deep sympathy with the families of the victims and said he will not accept greetings on the occasion of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan expected to start this weekend.