A fire yesterday seemingly caused by fireworks set off to celebrate a wedding consumed a hall packed with guests in northern Iraq, killing about 100 people and injuring 150 others.
Flammable building materials also contributed to the blaze, authorities said.
In the fire’s chaotic aftermath, officials offered conflicting death tolls and security officials said they had detained staff at the wedding hall as part of their investigation.
Photo: Reuters
The fire happened in the Hamdaniya area of Iraq’s Nineveh province, authorities said.
That is a predominantly Christian area just outside Mosul.
There was no official word on the cause of the blaze, but Kurdish television news channel Rudaw aired footage showing pyrotechnics shooting flames up from the floor of the event and setting a chandelier aflame.
Multiple witnesses, including 50-year-old wedding attendee Faten Youssef, said the fire started as the bride and groom began their slow dance.
The flames raced through plastic decorations and the ceiling started collapsing, she said.
“Flames started falling on us,” Youssef told reporters. “Things were falling down and blocked the way to the exit.”
She said her family found their way out through a kitchen, after they had struggled through smoke and flames and her son failed to kick through a jammed exit door.
It was not immediately clear if the bride and groom were among those hurt.
People arrived at local hospitals in bandages and receiving oxygen as their families milled through hallways and outside.
Some of those burned included children.
Ambulance sirens wailed for hours after the fire as paramedics brought out injured people.
Casualty figures fluctuated in the hours after the incident.
An initial statement by the Iraqi Ministry of Health, carried by the state-run Iraqi News Agency, said that the blaze killed more than 100 people and injured 150.
Health officials in Nineveh province put the death toll at 114, while Iraqi Minister of the Interior Abdul Amir al-Shammari later put the death toll at 93.
A health ministry official, speaking to reporters at midday on condition of anonymity as he did not have authorization to talk to journalists, said that 30 bodies had been identified by their relatives, but the rest were so badly burned that they would require DNA identification.
He put the death toll at 94, with about 100 people still receiving medical treatment.
“The death toll is expected to rise, as some are in critical condition,” he said.
AT RISK: The council reiterated that people should seriously consider the necessity of visiting China, after Beijing passed 22 guidelines to punish ‘die-hard’ separatists The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) has since Jan. 1 last year received 65 petitions regarding Taiwanese who were interrogated or detained in China, MAC Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday. Fifty-two either went missing or had their personal freedoms restricted, with some put in criminal detention, while 13 were interrogated and temporarily detained, he said in a radio interview. On June 21 last year, China announced 22 guidelines to punish “die-hard Taiwanese independence separatists,” allowing Chinese courts to try people in absentia. The guidelines are uncivilized and inhumane, allowing Beijing to seize assets and issue the death penalty, with no regard for potential
STILL COMMITTED: The US opposes any forced change to the ‘status quo’ in the Strait, but also does not seek conflict, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said US President Donald Trump’s administration released US$5.3 billion in previously frozen foreign aid, including US$870 million in security exemptions for programs in Taiwan, a list of exemptions reviewed by Reuters showed. Trump ordered a 90-day pause on foreign aid shortly after taking office on Jan. 20, halting funding for everything from programs that fight starvation and deadly diseases to providing shelters for millions of displaced people across the globe. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who has said that all foreign assistance must align with Trump’s “America First” priorities, issued waivers late last month on military aid to Israel and Egypt, the
‘UNITED FRONT’ FRONTS: Barring contact with Huaqiao and Jinan universities is needed to stop China targeting Taiwanese students, the education minister said Taiwan has blacklisted two Chinese universities from conducting academic exchange programs in the nation after reports that the institutes are arms of Beijing’s United Front Work Department, Minister of Education Cheng Ying-yao (鄭英耀) said in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper) published yesterday. China’s Huaqiao University in Xiamen and Quanzhou, as well as Jinan University in Guangzhou, which have 600 and 1,500 Taiwanese on their rolls respectively, are under direct control of the Chinese government’s political warfare branch, Cheng said, citing reports by national security officials. A comprehensive ban on Taiwanese institutions collaborating or
France’s nuclear-powered aircraft carrier and accompanying warships were in the Philippines yesterday after holding combat drills with Philippine forces in the disputed South China Sea in a show of firepower that would likely antagonize China. The Charles de Gaulle on Friday docked at Subic Bay, a former US naval base northwest of Manila, for a break after more than two months of deployment in the Indo-Pacific region. The French carrier engaged with security allies for contingency readiness and to promote regional security, including with Philippine forces, navy ships and fighter jets. They held anti-submarine warfare drills and aerial combat training on Friday in
RSS