Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif expressed on Monday sorrow over the death of three Pakistanis in a residential building fire in Dubai and also directed Pakistan’s Mission in the UAE to extend support to the affected families.

The fire broke out at midday on Saturday on the fourth floor of a building in the Al-Ras neighbourhood in the old part of the city, as per AFP.

“I extend my heartfelt condolences to the bereaved families over the tragedy. Have directed Pakistan’s Mission in the UAE to extend support to the affected families,” the PM said in a tweet today.

The civil defence force said preliminary investigations showed the fire was caused by a “lack of compliance with building security and safety requirements”, the UAE’s government’s media office said in a statement.

The nationalities of the victims have not been revealed officially, but local media reports said four Indians, three Pakistanis, one Cameroonian, one Sudanese and one West African were among the dead.