In the second fire incident in the country in less than 24 hours, a blaze broke out in a section of the upcoming Mall of Qatar near Rayyan Sports Club Saturday afternoon.
The fire was put out a few hours later and there were no injuries. Confirming this, the Ministry of Interior said in a tweet around 7.45pm that Civil Defence personnel had "completely contained" the fire at the site.
On Friday evening, a huge fire had broken out in a portion of the Caravan restaurant complex near the Jabr bin Ahmed intersection along C-Ring Road. The blaze was brought under control after nearly two and a half hours.
Though the reason for the fire at the Mall of Qatar construction site was not known , it is learnt that it occurred in the afternoon when hundreds of labourers were deployed there. The fire seemed to erupt at the ground level where work was apparently going on in full swing. One end of the Doha Metro's Green Line is in the immediate vicinity of the mall.
Sources said there were reports of some workers unable to move out for a while owing to the intensity of the smoke, which seemingly hindered their visibility. Personnel from the Civil Defence and Lekhwiya managed to take each of the workers to safety.
Some ambulances were also spotted at the site, according to eyewitnesses. A number of fire engines and water tankers were engaged in the fire-fighting operations and the fire was put out some three hours after it began, they added.
Mall of Qatar has set an opening date of August 23, according to earlier reports.