Maldives Fire in Building Housing Foreign Workers Kills 10

Maldives Fire in Building Housing Foreign Workers Kills 10
Maldives police stand guard on Oct. 19, 2013. (Ishara S.Kodikara/AFP via Getty Images)

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka—A fire early Thursday in a building housing foreign workers in the Maldives capital killed 10 people and injured another critically, police said.

Maldives police spokesman Yoonus Sobah said the fire broke out in the building after midnight. He said the nationalities of the victims have not been confirmed. The Indian embassy in Maldives said on Twitter that Indian citizens were among the dead.

Sobah said the cause of the fire is being investigated.

Maldives employs a large number of foreign workers, mostly from Bangladesh and India. Their living quarters, especially in the capital, Male, are frequently overcrowded.

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