Head of Qatar’s Public Security Major General Saad bin Jassim al-Khalifi said on Thursday that among those killed in the explosion were Arabs, Asians and one Qatari citizen.

Citing a security source, Reuters further described the Thursday at Doha’s Istanbul restaurant as accidental, adding that tow Asian children were among the dead.

Preliminary investigations suggested that a gas tank exploded, setting off a fire and causing part of the building to collapse, said Gen. al-Khalifi at a news conference.

However, investigations were continuing to discover the exact cause of the gas tank explosion.

"It was a very big blast," he said. "It blew away cars and the shrapnel scattered 50 or 100 meters away."

The incident was the deadliest in Qatar since May 2012, when at least 19 foreign nationals, including 13 children, were killed by a fire in an upscale shopping mall.

A member of Qatar's ruling family was among five people sentenced to prison by a court last year for negligence over the fire. The blaze was caused by faulty wiring in Doha's Villagio Mall and quickly spread to a nursery, the court found.

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