COLOMBO – A Sri Lankan national has been identified as one of the three people killed in the twin blasts that rocked the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on Monday (Aug 31).
The Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment confirming the death, said 28-year-old Samith Rangana from Weligama, in Sri Lanka’s Southern Province, had been killed in the blast at the KFC restaurant in central Abu Dhabi.
UAE media reported that three people were killed and several others were injured in two separate explosions in Abu Dhabi and Dubai. Quoting the Abu Dhabi government media office, reports said two people, including Rangana, were killed in the blast in the capital, which hit the KFC and Hardees restaurants on Rashid bin Saeed Street.
The street is also known as a main road to the airport, where top aides to US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu were set to land later on Monday, in a historic trip between Israel and another Arab country.
Police had said the Abu Dhabi incident also caused several minor and moderate injuries, and that residents of the building and surrounding areas were evacuated. However, the Abu Dhabi government media office had claimed the blast was caused by a “misalignment in the gas container fittings following refuelling”.
Photos published on social and local media showed extensive damage to the two restaurants with a white plume of smoke rising from the ground floor of the building.
The Dubai explosion in which one person was killed, was also attributed to a malfunctioning gas cylinder.
Abu Dhabi-owned The National newspaper, quoting a Dubai Civil Defence spokesperson, said the blast in Dubai had caused a blaze that damaged the ground floor of the building. The fire was controlled within 33 minutes, it added.
-ENCL