At least 100 people killed and 150 injured after fire breaks out at wedding in northern Iraq writes the BBC
The room where the wedding took placePhoto: AA/ABACA / Abaca Press / Profimedia
Hundreds of people were celebrating in Al-Hamdaniya, in Iraq’s northern Nineveh province, when the fire broke out late in the evening.
It is not yet known what caused the fire, but initial reports say it started after fireworks were lit.
Flammable panels may have fueled the flames, causing parts of the ceiling to catch fire and fall.
“The fire caused parts of the hall to collapse as a result of the use of highly flammable and cheap construction materials that collapse quickly,” Iraq’s Civil Defense Directorate was quoted as saying by state news agency INA.
It is not clear if the bride and groom are among the victims. Initial Iraqi media reports said they died in the fire, the Nina news agency later reported they were alive but being treated for burns.
A photo posted by Nina showed dozens of firefighters battling the blaze, and images from local journalists on social media showed the charred remains inside the event hall.
Firefighters could be seen searching for survivors on Wednesday morning.
Eyewitnesses said hundreds of people were there celebrating when the building caught fire around 10:45 a.m. local time (19:45 GMT) on Tuesday.
Another wedding guest, Rania Waad, who suffered a burn on her hand, said that as the bride and groom danced slowly, “fireworks started going up into the ceiling, the whole hall caught fire”.
“I couldn’t see anything,” the 17-year-old told the AFP news agency. “We were suffocating, we didn’t know how to get out.”
The deputy governor of Nineveh, Hassan al-Allaq, told Reuters that 113 people were confirmed dead, while state news agency INA put the death toll at at least 100, with 150 people injured.
The wounded were transferred to hospitals in the Nineveh region, the region’s governor told INA.
At the main hospital in Hamdaniya, which is east of the regional capital Mosul, dozens of people arrived to donate blood to help the wounded.
The Iraqi prime minister posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, that he told officials to “mobilize all efforts to provide aid to those affected by the unfortunate incident.”
