Qatar Says 13 Children among 19 Dead in Mall Fire

A fire that erupted on Monday at a nursery in a main shopping center in the Qatari capital killed 19 people including 13 children, the interior ministry said.

Four of the children who died were Spanish, said a foreign ministry spokeswoman in Madrid.

The blaze left "19 dead, including 13 children, among them seven girls and six boys, in addition to four female teachers," the Qatari interior ministry said on its Twitter page, citing the country's health minister.

Two members of the civil defense also died in the fire at the capital's main Villagio mall, it said.

The fire started at a nursery, state minister for the interior Abdullah bin Nasser Al-Thani told reporters.

Firefighters had to break through the roof to get to trapped children after a staircase to the first-floor nursery collapsed, he added.

In Madrid, a foreign ministry spokeswoman said: "Four of the dead children are Spanish."

Spanish embassy officials were trying to get more details, she added.

The fire at the Villagio broke out at 11:30 am (0800 GMT), the ministry said, quoting Al-Thani as telling reporters that the "public prosecution has taken charge of the investigation."

Footage posted earlier online showed black smoke billowing from the shopping center as emergency vehicles rushed to the scene.