More than 110 killed, over 150 injured in Iraq wedding hall fire

A raging fire seemingly caused by fireworks set off to celebrate a Christian wedding consumed a hall packed with guests in northern Iraq, killing over 100 people and injuring more than 150 others.

Authorities warned on Wednesday that the death toll could still rise. Nineveh Deputy Governor Hasan al Allaq said 113 people had been confirmed dead.

The Nineveh administration also declared a week of mourning.

Health officials "recorded 100 deaths and more than 150 injured as a preliminary toll as a result of the wedding hall fire incident in Al Hamdaniya," Ministry of Health spokesman Saif al Badr told the Iraqi News Agency [INA].

"All efforts are being made to provide relief to those affected by the unfortunate accident."

The fire happened in the Hamdaniya area of Iraq’s Nineveh province, a predominantly Christian area just outside of the city of Mosul, some 335 kilometres (205 miles) northwest of Baghdad.

Najim al Jubouri, the provincial governor of Nineveh, said some of the injured had been transferred to regional hospitals. He cautioned there were no final casualty figures yet from the blaze, which suggests the death toll still may rise.

Eyewitnesses at the site said the building caught fire at around 10:45 pm local time [1945 GMT] and that hundreds of people were in attendance at the time of the incident.

Television footage showed charred debris inside of the wedding hall as a man shouted at firefighters.

"We saw the fire pulsating, coming out of the hall. Those who managed got out and those who didn't got stuck. Even those who made their way out were broken," said Imad Yohana, a 34-year-old who escaped the inferno.

There was no official word on the cause of the blaze, but the Kurdish television news channel Rudaw aired footage showing fireworks shooting up from the floor of the event and setting a chandelier aflame.

In the blaze’s aftermath, only charred metal and debris could be seen as people walked through the scene of the fire, the only light coming from television cameras and the lights of onlookers’ mobile phones.

Construction of site under scanner

Survivors arrived at local hospitals, receiving oxygen and bandaged, as their families milled through hallways and outside as workers organized more oxygen cylinders.

In a brief statement, Iraqi Prime Minister Mohamed Shia al Sudani called on the ministers of health and the interior to "mobilise all rescue efforts" to help the victims of the fire.

In a statement, civil defence authorities reported the presence of prefabricated panels that were "highly flammable and contravened safety standards" inside the event hall where the blaze took place.

"The fire caused some parts of the ceiling to fall due to the use of highly flammable, low-cost construction materials," the statement said.

"Preliminary information indicates that fireworks were used during a wedding, which triggered a fire in the hall."