UPDATE: Officials confirm one dead at TAMU-Q lab incident

By The Daily Q Staff

Photo by Syed Owais Ali
Photo by Syed Owais Ali

UPDATE 9:30p.m.:

Marc Weichold, Dean and CEO of  Texas A&M University at Qatar (TAMU-Q) released a statement revealing that a TAMU-Q staff member had died during the incident. The staff member’s death also announcing that the staff member’s family had been notified and that classes will be cancelled tomorrow, May 29, and will resume on Sunday, June 1. However, the building will still be open to the community.

Alleged reports indicate that Hassan Kamal Hussien was the TAMU-Q staff member killed in the incident. Hamad Medical Corporation morgue officials confirmed to The Daily Q that Hussien died as a result of the injuries sustained during the explosion.

Weichold also sent out another email to announce a TAMU-Q community meeting to discuss the incident. The meeting will be held tomorrow, May 29, and will not be open to the public.

A lab explosion on the third floor of Texas A&M University at Qatar earlier today may have caused a death, according to multiple unverified accounts.

The cause of the lab incident is still unclear. Several alleged reports have been circulating but nothing is confirmed. It started with a loud explosion inside a third floor lab.

At 12:29 p.m., students at TAMU-Q received the following text from an internal alert system: “Stay AWAY from building. Please go to CMU or student center.”

At 1:00 pm, an email was sent out to everyone with the following message. “AggieALERT ZR9: There has been an incident at TAMUQ with injury. Stay away. Take shelter from heat at CMU or HBKU student center. Classes suspended as of 1 p.m.”

Haitham Al-Haidari, a senior at TAMU-Q, went with his friend to the research lab on the third floor to investigate, after hearing the sound of an explosion. They were then joined by a professor from the electrical engineering department.

“They went inside and I was going after them but then they came out looking really shocked so I didn’t go inside,” said Al-Haidari. “They said there was a guy on the ground and there was a lot of blood.”

Al-Haidari also added that it took some time for the fire alarms to set off and then everyone was evacuated from the building. Later, the medics and firefighters came inside the building.

After a team of medics and firefighters entered the building, they informed Al-Haidari and the professor that a teaching assistant had suffered fatal injuries. “The doctor who came to the building first told me and the professor that the medics and firefighters have announced that the guy has passed away.” This account matches several others, although no official confirmation has been released.

Two other students at TAMU-Q who witnessed the incident declined to comment until a full police investigation takes place.

At 4:20 p.m., employees and students were allowed back into the building to retrieve their belongings, escorted by security personnel. Only security personnel were allowed on the third floor.

Mark Barker, the manager of building systems at TAMU-Q, said it was still too early to know whether or not classes would resume tomorrow.

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