Blaze at Qatar shopping centre kills 19

The interior ministry said 13 of the victims at the Villaggio centre were children. Four of them were Spanish nationals, three from New Zealand and one child was French.

The cause of the fire - believed to have started in the centre's nursery - is being investigated.

The Villaggio is a popular shopping centre in the small Gulf state.

The centre - which opened in 2006 - has a cinema, a hotel and a Venice-styled theme park.

'Trapped inside'

The blaze started at about 11:00 local time (08:00 GMT) on Monday, Qatari Interior Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser al-Thani said.

It is believed to have started at the centre's Gympanzee nursery, and firefighters reportedly had to break through the roof to get to trapped children when a staircase collapsed.

But the firefighters were too late to save seven young girls and six boys who died with four of their teachers, reports say.

Four of the children who died were Spanish, foreign ministry officials in Madrid said, without giving further details.

In Paris, the minister in charge of French expatriates, Yamina Benguigui, said that a three-year-old French child died in the blaze.

New Zealand's Prime Minister John Key later confirmed that three of the dead children were New Zealanders, adding that they were believed to be triplets, the New Zealand Herald newspaper reports.

Two civil defence officials - said to be firefighters - were also among the victims, the interior ministry said.

All the victims died of asphyxiation, reports say.

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