2023-09-27 19:03:22
Time.news – At least 100 people were killed and more than 150 injured due to a fire that broke out during a wedding in an event hall in the city of Hamdaniyah, northern Iraqaccording to the first released balance sheet.
At the main hospital in Hamdaniyah – a predominantly Christian city east of Mosul, also known as Qaraqosh – an AFP photographer saw arriving ambulances with sirens blaring and dozens of people gather in the courtyard to donate blood. People were also seen gathering in front of the open doors of a refrigerated truck carrying several black body bags.
Health authorities in Nineveh province, where the city is located, “counted 100 dead and more than 150 injured in the fire at a wedding hall in Hamdaniyah,” Iraq’s official INA news agency reported, citing a “count preliminary”. The count was confirmed by a spokesperson for the country’s health ministry.
In a statement, the civil protection authorities reported the presence of prefabricated panels “highly flammable and contrary to safety standards” inside the event room where the fire occurred. “The fire caused parts of the ceiling to collapse due to the use of highly flammable, low-cost building materials,” the statement said. “Preliminary information indicates that fireworks were used during a wedding, which started the fire in the hall.”
In a brief statement, Iraqi Prime Minister Mohamed Shia al-Sudani called on the health and interior ministers to “mobilize all relief efforts” to help the victims of the fire.
The Ministry of Health announced that “medical aid truck” were sent to the area from Baghdad and other provinces, adding that its teams in Nineveh had been mobilized to care for the wounded.
As is the case with many Christian towns in the Nineveh Plains, Qaraqosh and its churches were methodically sacked by jihadists from the Islamic State group after they entered the town in 2014. The town was slowly rebuilt after the group’s ouster in 2017 and it was the scene of a visit by Pope Francis in March 2021.
Safety standards in the construction and transportation sectors in Iraq are often disregarded and the country, the cuThe infrastructure is in ruins after decades of conflict, is regularly the scene of fires and fatal accidents. In the July 2021, a fire in the Covid unit of a hospital in the south of the country has killed more than 60 people. In April of the same year, an oxygen tank explosion caused a fire in a Baghdad hospital, also dedicated to Covid patients, which left more than 80 dead.
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