Doha: At least 54 people were hurt and 18 are missing after an explosion at a factory in Qatar’s Ras Laffan industrial zone, the interior ministry said on Sunday, Reuters reported.
Authorities described the blast as the result of a “technical incident” that occurred inside a factory in the northern industrial complex. “An internal explosion occurred in one of the factories in the Ras Laffan Industrial Area following a technical incident,” the interior ministry told AFP, adding that civil defence teams had started handling the situation after journalists in Doha reported hearing a loud blast.
In a subsequent update, the ministry said a “technical malfunction” had “led to a number of injuries”, but did not give details on how many or how serious the injuries were.
An AFP journalist located about 20 kilometres south of Ras Laffan said flames were visible against the night sky and a large column of smoke was coming from the industrial area, which houses some of the globe’s largest liquefied natural gas (LNG) installations.
QatarEnergy, the state-owned energy firm, said the explosion occurred “during the start-up of operations at Ras Laffan Industrial City, which resulted in an explosion and fire at Barzan local gas supply facility”.
While authorities have attributed the blast to an internal technical fault, Ras Laffan’s operations have already been affected in recent months by broader regional conflict involving the US, Israel and Iran. Iranian attacks have previously struck energy infrastructure across the Gulf, including facilities linked to Ras Laffan, prompting temporary halts to parts of Qatar’s gas output.
Qatar — one of the world’s top LNG exporters alongside the United States, Australia and Russia — suspended LNG production on March 2 after Iranian drone strikes hit key sites. Additional damage reported on March 18 was expected to cut Qatar’s LNG export capacity by roughly 17 percent, and full repairs were projected to take three to five years, Energy Minister Saad Al‑Kaabi said earlier.
