Authorities said the incident in Ras Laffan Industrial City was caused by a “technical malfunction”
A massive explosion and fire hit Qatar’s Ras Laffan Industrial City on Sunday evening, with authorities attributing the incident to a “technical malfunction” during operations at a local gas facility rather than an attack.
Qatar’s Interior Ministry initially said an “internal explosion” had occurred at a factory in Ras Laffan due to a technical incident, adding that civil defense teams were responding and that there was no threat to public safety. In a later update, the ministry said “a number of injuries” had been reported, while stressing that no dangerous leaks had been detected.
QatarEnergy said the blast occurred during the start-up of operations at the Barzan local gas supply facility in Ras Laffan in the evening hours of June 21. Emergency teams were deployed immediately, and the resulting fire has since been brought under control, the company said.
Videos circulating online showed a large fireball lighting up the night sky, followed by a towering plume of smoke from the direction of the industrial zone.
Ras Laffan, located north of Doha, is one of the world’s most important gas-processing hubs and is central to Qatar’s liquefied natural gas industry. The complex was among the “US-linked” facilities Tehran hit earlier in the war in retaliation for the Israeli strike on its own South Pars gas field.
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