Pradeep, the father of 27-year-old Srihari, who resided in the building that tragically caught fire in Kuwait on Wednesday, leading to 49 fatalities, could only identify his son’s remains through a tattoo on his hand.
Recalling the harrowing experience, Pradeep shared how he was summoned by the authorities to identify his son’s body at a hospital mortuary.
“When I went there, I saw that the face was completely swollen and the nose was covered with soot. I was unable to identify him. I just could not. Then I told them that he has a tattoo on his hand. Based on that, he was identified,” Pradeep tearfully recounted to a Malayalam news channel in Kuwait on Thursday.
Srihari had recently returned to Kuwait from Kerala on June 5, just a week before the tragic incident. Both father and son were employed by the same company, with Pradeep having worked in Kuwait for the past eight years.
Earlier in the day, a family friend informed reporters that news of Srihari’s demise reached his village in Kerala barely a week after he departed for Kuwait. Srihari had been working in a supermarket in Kuwait while seeking a job in his field of study, mechanical engineering.
Efforts were underway to repatriate Pradeep to Kerala promptly, with plans in motion to bring Srihari’s body back by the following day.
Official confirmation of the identities of the deceased Indians from the Centre, state governments, or the Indian Embassy in Kuwait is still pending.
The tragic fire occurred in a building in the southern city of Mangaf, claiming the lives of 49 foreign workers, including approximately 40 Indians, and injuring 50 others.
The blaze originated in the kitchen of the seven-story building housing 195 migrant workers in Mangaf’s Ahmadi Governorate early on Wednesday, shortly after 4 am, catching most of the 196 all-male residents asleep. The incident resulted in thick clouds of black smoke, leading to the suffocation of the majority of the victims, according to Kuwait Interior Ministry and Fire Department officials.