Debris from an intercepted drone caused a fire on the top floor of Dubai’s 23 Marina tower on Saturday night.
Authorities confirmed that the facade of the high-rise building in the city’s Al-Barsha district had been damaged following after air defence systems responded to an Iranian air strike.
Despite initial reports that the incident had been ‘contained’ with no injuries reported, the Dubai government confirmed that a Pakistani driver had been killed after debris fell on his vehicle.
The city’s media office said in a statement: ‘Authorities confirm that debris from an aerial interception fell onto a vehicle in the Al Barsha area, resulting in the death of a Pakistani driver.’
Pictures of the 88-storey tower – Dubai’s fourth tallest and the world’s sixth tallest residential skyscraper – showed smoke billowing from the top floors of the building.
The latest development comes after Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian apologised to Gulf countries, including the UAE, promising that there would be no further strikes on those nations ‘unless an attack on Iran originates from those countries’.
Air defences were activated in Dubai on Saturday morning as several blasts were heard in the Emirati city.
Flights were again suspended from Dubai International Airport as alerts sounded in the terminal and passengers were led down to underground train tunnels.
Emirates resumed operations later this morning.
A third government repatriation flight was set to leave Muscat in Oman this evening, after the second Titan Airways operated service landed at Gatwick earlier today.
British Airways has been running its own daily flights from Oman’s capital to repatriate its stranded customers in the UAE.
The latest passengers join some 6,500 Britons who have left the UAE since the conflict began a week ago.
More than 160,000 British nationals have registered their presence in the Middle East with the UK government.
Attacks were also reported in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, the latter confirming it had shot down attacks heading for the Shaybah oil field and Prince Sultan Air Base, which is hosting US forces.
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