Qatar's Interior Ministry said Sunday evening that the explosion at the Ras Laffan gas facility was caused by a technical malfunction. The announcement comes after earlier reports of an internal blast at the facility, and follows a similar ministry statement Sunday night that an explosion at a factory was an internal incident with no casualties.
Qatar's Interior Ministry attributed the explosion at the Ras Laffan gas facility to a technical malfunction in a statement Sunday evening. The announcement follows a fast-moving chain of reports since 22:49 Jerusalem: initial reports of a loud explosion in Doha (version 1) expanded to include Bahrain (version 2), then Hezbollah-linked sources suggested a targeted strike (version 3). By version 4, Qatari authorities identified the blast as a factory fire at the Ras Laffan complex. Subsequent versions — all timestamped 22:49 — confirmed an internal explosion with no casualties or leaks (versions 5-6), then reported multiple explosions (version 7) and a large fire (version 8), and culminated in additional footage of an internal explosion at the facility (version 9, published and referenced as context at 23:01). The ministry's new statement (the current update) now attributes this single incident to a technical malfunction, closing the cause question for now but providing no further details on the malfunction's nature or damage assessment.
10 developments
Source and signal
- Internal intake