A brawl apparently broke out tonight in the Muaither neighborhood of Al Rayyan Municipality, sparking concerns and rumors about the incident.
The Ministry of Interior reported that gunshots were fired, but said there were no deaths or “serious” injuries:
مشاجرة بين عدد من الافراد بمنطقة معيذر تم فيها اطلاق نار وتمكنت الجهات الامنية من القاء القبض على المتشاجرين دون وقوع وفيات او اصابات بليغة
— وزارة الداخلية – قطر (@MOI_Qatar) August 3, 2012
Rough translation:
A fight occured between a number of individuals in Muaither area, gun shots were fired but security forces arrested them without causing deaths or serious injuries
With conflicting accounts about the incident being passed around via Twitter and BlackBerry Messenger, authorities are also warning people not to spread misinformation, in violation of the law.
Details of the fight itself remain unconfirmed, but witnesses reported seeing armed security forces outside Hamad Hospital’s Emergency ward afterward.
Many online, meanwhile, began questioning how such an incident could happen in Qatar, given its ranking as one of the safest countries in the world:
@moi_qataren wat is qatars gun law? Who is allowed to own a gunand y? @dohanews
— iKHAN (@iKHANqat) August 4, 2012
Some commented that Qatar’s streets had become those of Chicago or Los Angeles, while a graphic passed around made the comparison to the video game Call of Duty:
A picture worth a thousand word. #معيذر. Lool 🙂 twitter.com/EmanM7mmed/sta…
— Ємaŋ ♥ (@EmanM7mmed) August 3, 2012
Were you there? Did you see what happened?
Credit: Photos courtesy of Nayaf Al Emadi
Correction: This post originally referred to Muaither as part of Doha when it is in fact a part of Al Rayyan Municipality.