Smoke rises above the Villaggio Mall, in Doha's west end, as a fire took hold of the upscale mall in Qatar's capital. Source: AP
THE Crown Prince of Qatar wants a special commission to investigate the fatal shopping mall blaze in the Qatari capital of Doha that left 19 people dead, including two-year-old Kiwi triplets.
Lillie, Jackson and Willsher Weekes were at the Gympanzee childcare centre on the first floor of the Villaggio mall when the fire broke out rlier today.
At least 12 people remain in hospital following the fire which claimed the lives of 13 expatriate children: seven girls, six boys, along with four women teachers and two firefighters.
Crown Prince Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani has ordered a special commission be set up to look into the fire, Al Jazeera reports.
Many of the fire's victims died from smoke inhalation, according to media reports.
The mall remains closed today.
Fatalities also include children from Spain, France, and others from Japan and South Africa.
The dead teachers include three Filipinas and one from South Africa.
Abdullah bin Nasser Khalifa Al Thani, Qatar's minister of state for interior affairs, said a combination of heavy smoke, heat and narrow corridors in the shopping complex forced emergency services to seek an alternative point of entry.
The Weekes children had been attending the centre for two or three months.
Their father, Martin Weekes, was chief executive of Eden Park from 1996-2000 and moved to Qatar with wife Jane in 2007.
He is a senior adviser at Qatar government agency q.media.
When she was pregnant, Mrs Weekes came back to New Zealand and had the triplets in Wellington.
Former New Zealand journalist Tarek Bazley was in the mall when the fire broke out, saying he heard a benign alarm which sounded like a repeating doorbell, but he was told by an attendant that "it's usually a false alarm".
"About 10 minutes later someone else, a member of the public, raced through this area and said 'everybody out, you've got to get out now, the other half of the mall is on fire'."
Television footage shows those that were rescued escaped through a hole in the roof cut by firefighters.
Unconfirmed reports said two managers were arrested and may face charges.
The fire is the second deadliest tragedy to strike the wealthy, oil-rich Gulf state.
In 2009, 30 people died when an accommodation barge sank off the coast of Doha.
Qatar, with a population of just under two million, including a significant expatriate population, was a former British protectorate and gained independence in 1971.
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