dpa
Baghdad
Iraqi authorities said on Wednesday that over 100 people were killed in a fire that ripped through a wedding party in a northern province.
The blaze broke out on Tuesday night at a hall in the town of Al Hamdaniya in Iraq’s northern province of Nineveh.
Initially, health authorities put the number of deaths in the fire at 100 while Nineveh Governor Najim Al Jabouri said 114 were killed.
Later on Wednesday, Iraq’s state news agency INA quoted Health Minister Saleh AlHasnawi as saying the incident had left 93 people dead and 101 injured. The fire was triggered by fireworks resulting in the collapse of the hall ceiling on the party-goers, Interior Minister Abdul Amir Al Shammari said.
"The wedding hall lacked safety specifications,” he said, according to INA.
Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Al Sudani has ordered three days of national mourning for the victims, his media office said.
Al Jabouri declared a week-long period of mourning in Nineveh and ordered celebrations marking the birthday of Islam’s Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) be postponed "until further notice.” The Iraqi Interior Ministry said nine workers at the hall were arrested and arrest warrants had been issued for four owners.
"Criminal evidence experts and civil defence confirmed that the hall was constructed of the highly inflammable Ecobond material. There were also fireworks that caused the fire incident, in addition to lack of safety requirements,” the ministry’s spokesman Saad Maan said, according to INA. Some survivors recalled the tragedy.
"The incident was tragic,horrible and unforgettable,” Laila Chena, 76, told DPA. "We survived the fire because we were near the main door.”
The woman said her five-year-old grandson,who was with her at the party, was still missing.
Lucan, a young survivor, gave his own account of the incident.
"While the bride and the groom were dancing inside the hall, some people lit fireworks, which caused the ceiling to catch fire that spread throughout the hall,” the man said.
"The people inside the hall did not move quickly. When they noticed the fire, there was a stampede among the guests, which led to some of them falling on top of others,” he told independent Iraqi website Alsumaria News.
"We were able to get out. At these moments, the burning ceiling fell on the guests.”
The man said more than 20 children were probably among the fatalities. So far, there has been no official confirmation.
Pictures of the disaster showed a collapsed and burnt-out hall.
There were around 1,000 people inside the hall at the time of the fire, according to Nineveh Deputy Governor Hassan Al Alaf.
In July 2021, a blaze swept through an isolation ward for Coronavirus patients at a hospital in Iraq’s southern city of Nasiriyah, killing 60 people, the Health Ministry said at the time.
In April of that year, a similar incident occurred at a hospital in Baghdad, killing more than 80 people, with the health minister resigning afterwards.