Fire at wedding hall in Iraq kills at least 100

The fire spread quickly in part because the building was made of highly flammable construction materials, state media reported. /p>

MOSUL, Iraq — A fire that ravaged a hall hosting a Christian wedding in northern Iraq killed at least 100 people and injured 150 others, officials said. authorities announced on Wednesday, warning that the toll could rise.

The fire occurred in the Hamdaniya region, in Nineveh province, said authorities. It is a predominantly Christian area just outside the city of Mosul, about 205 miles northwest of the capital, Baghdad.

Television images showed flames rushing towards the wedding hall as the ceremonies took place. the fire set in. In the aftermath of the fire, only charred metal and debris were visible as people walked through the scene, the only light coming from television cameras and spectators' cell phones.

The survivors have arrived. at local hospitals, receiving oxygen and bandages, while family members crowded the hallways and outside.

A carrier word of the Ministry of Health, Saif al-Badr, gave the number of victims via the state. -manages the Iraqi news agency.

“All efforts are being made to provide relief to those affected by this unfortunate accident,” said Mr. al-Badr .

Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani ordered an investigation into the fire and asked officials from the Iraqi Interior and Health ministries to to provide relief, his office said in an online statement.

< p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Najim al-Jubouri, governor of Nineveh province, said some of the injured had been transferred to regional hospitals. He warned that there were no final figures yet on casualties from the fire, suggesting the toll could rise further.

There was no immediate official word on the cause of the fire. the fire, but initial reports from Kurdish news channel Rudaw suggested that fireworks at the scene may have sparked the fire.

Des Civil defense officials cited by the Iraqi news agency described the marriage. the exterior of the hall is decorated with a highly flammable coating that is illegal in the country.

It is not immediately clear why authorities allowed the use of this covering in the hall. , but corruption and mismanagement remain endemic in Iraq two decades after the U.S.-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein.

Although some types of coverings could be made with fire-resistant material Experts say those that caught fire in the wedding hall and caught fire elsewhere were not designed to meet strict safety standards and were often installed in buildings without any interruption likely to slow or stop a possible fire. Such cladding was a factor in the 2017 Grenfell Tower fire in London, which killed 72 people, and in several skyscraper fires in the United Arab Emirates.

The fire In Iraq, it is the latest disaster to strike the country's declining Christian minority, which over the past two decades has been violently targeted by extremists, first from Al- Qaeda, then the Islamic State militant group. Although the Nineveh Plains, the historic homeland of Iraqi Christians, was recaptured from Islamic State six years ago, some towns are still mostly in ruins and lack basic services. Many Christians have left for Europe, Australia or the United States.

The number of Christians in Iraq today is estimated at 150,000, compared to 1.5 million in 2003. The total population of Iraq is over 40 million.