Two Sri Lankan nationals were killed while a number of people injured in a deadly road accident near the traffic lights below Ras Abu Aboud flyover in Doha, Qatar on Wednesday are still receiving treatment at the emergency unit of Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC).
Most of the injured, whose exact number could not be ascertained, are from Sri Lanka, Nepal and the Philippines, it is learnt.
HMC refused to divulge any details about those being treated for injuries resulting from the accident, which claimed the lives of two Sri Lankans.
The majority of them are employees of Doha Marriott Hotel and many of them are reported to have arrived in the country recently. A team from Marriott International Inc’s Middle East and Africa Continent office in Dubai arrived in Doha yesterday.
“A team from our hotel was in Doha as it’s a time we have to be with our employees, and we are doing what we can to assist our employees and their families,” said a Marriott official, speaking to The Peninsula newspaper from Dubai.
Among the injured, two Sri Lankans are receiving treatment at the emergency unit of HMC, a source at the country’s embassy in Qatar said.
Many of those who received minor injuries, including some Sri Lankans, have been treated and discharged from the hospital.
The Sri Lankan embassy is making arrangements to send the bodies of the two deceased home. They have been identified as Abdul Hameed Mohamed Faizan (33), who was driving one of the ill-fated minibuses, and M N Prasanna Ruwan (27), an employee of Marriott.
Ruwan, from Anuradhapura district in Sri Lanka, was the only breadwinner of his family and had come to Qatar to work for Marriott Doha recently. His mother has given an affidavit to the foreign ministry in Sri Lanka permitting his body to be sent home.
Faizan hailed from Kurunegala district in Sri Lanka. He was married and had a nine-year-old daughter. He came to Doha three years ago and worked as a driver with a company. Faizan had returned from vacation some five months ago and had been staying in the Najma area with his brother-in-law. “Faizan was on early morning shift on Wednesday. He got up early and left at 4am, and that was when I saw him for the last time,” said the brother-in-law, whose sister was married to Faizan. He said if there was any delay in getting Faizan’s body released, his last rites would be performed in Doha.
