The weather did not dampen the spirit of Qatar’s residents as a large number of people left homes to spend the evenings at beaches, the parks and malls across the country on the first and second days of the Eid ul-Fitr. Disregarding the humid and hot conditions, many people, mostly bachelors, thronged the zoo on the first day. On the first day of Eid-ul-Fitr, the emergency department of the Hamad hospital received close to 490 cases between 6am and 4pm, according to reports in the local Arabic press. Most of the cases pertained to road accidents. There were 12 cases of heart conditions and several people had to be treated for food poisoning resulting from eating various kinds of food and sweets. A 21-year old Qatari national suffered fractures and bruises when he lost control of his vehicle on the Salwa road after it was hit by another vehicle driven by a Bangladeshi national who tried to overtake him. The injured was airlifted from the spot to the emergency ward by the Hamad Medical Corporation’s air ambulance. Officials of the traffic department said the flow of traffic on all the major roads in Doha and the outskirts was generally smooth and problem-free on the first day of the Eid. This may also be due to the fact that most of the people remained indoors meeting and greeting their relatives and neighbours. However, the traffic department is prepared to meet any contingency, the officials said. All the personnel have been asked to report for duty during the Eid holidays. No one has been allowed to take leave during this period. The Sealine in Mesaieed, the beach in Wakrah and Doha’s Corniche were the places people thronged in large numbers, though the weather played spoilsport with temperature and humidity reaching very high levels. The multiplex cinemas in Villaggio and City Centre had a record number of more than 7,000 viewers. The supervisor of the multiplex in the City Centre, Tareq Abdul Aziz said in a statement to a local Arabic daily that 800 tickets were sold for each show between 10 am and 7 pm. Many tickets were purchased in advance a day before. The total number of tickets sold was more than 1,500. The multiplex at the Villaggio drew a more than 6,000 viewers to the various movies. People wanting to buy cinema tickets were seen almost the whole day. Similarly the food halls were also packed with a long line of people. http://www.gulf-times.com/site/topics/article.asp?cu_no=2&item_no=455913&version=1&template_id=36&parent_id=16

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