Iraq shopping mall fire kills more than 60

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In the eastern Iraqi city of Kot, a new open shopping mall was set on fire, killing at least 61 people, officials said Thursday, when grieving families searched the missing relatives.

Officials said many people died in the bathrooms, while one person told AFP that five of his relatives had been killed in the elevator.

Blaze-In a country where the safety rules are often overlooked-late on Wednesday, the alleged five-storey Carnich Hypertension starts at the first floor before surrounding the goods rapidly.

The reason was not immediately known, but a survivor told AFP that an air conditioner had exploded.

Several people told AFP that they lost families, including mothers and children, who went to shopping and food in the mall, a few days after opening in the cut – 160 km (100 miles) south -east of Baghdad.

Footage shared on social media shows that children standing on the roof demand help.

Ali Kadham, 51, has been closed between the Mall and the Central Hospital, where the victims were taken in search of their cousin, who is missing from his wife and three children.

Back to the mall, he waited anxiously when the researchers searched the victims in the debris with an ambulance on standby.

“We do not know what happened to them,” he said.

An AFP representative at the scene said the fire was set on and the front part of the building was severely filled.

The Interior Ministry said in a statement that “the tragic fire has claimed the lives of 61 innocent civilians, most of which are diminished in the bathrooms, and 14 of them cannot be identified.”

‘We can’t escape’

The INA news agency later cited a medical source that killed 63 and injured 40.

The victims include men, women and children, Mohammad Al -Miai, the governor of Vasit Province, told the government INA News Agency.

A medical source in Kot told AFP that there were “many unknown bodies”.

An AFP representative reported to see the bodies in the Franzic Department of the province.

The Interior Ministry said civil defense teams rescued more than 45 people trapped inside the building, including a restaurant and a supermarket.

Ambulances suffered casualties by 4:00 am, with wards in the cut

An AFP representative saw troubled relatives waiting in the Franzak Department for news, some grieved.

A man was hitting his chest and screaming.

Nasir al -Qawarii, a doctor in the 50s, said he lost five family members in the fire.

“A catastrophe is full of us,” he told AFP. “We went to eat some food, dinner and to avoid electricity at home.

“An air conditioner exploded on the second floor and then flames – and we can’t escape.”

Safety rules and regulations

At midnight, 45 -year -old Motaz Karim hurried into the goods, met only with the devastating news who had disappeared his three relatives.

Hours later, he identified two relatives despite their chard bodies, one of whom started working at the shopping center three days ago.

He angrily said, “There is no fire extinguisher,” he said, when he waited more news outside the Franzic Department.

Security standards are often overlooked in the construction sector of Iraq, and the country, whose infrastructure is defective after decades of conflict, is often the scene of deadly fire and accidents.

The fire increases during the peeling summer as the temperature comes close to 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit).

In September 2023, after the fire, at least 100 people were killed when it exploded from a crowd of Iraqi wedding halls, giving birth to a panic to get out.

In July 2021, more than 60 people were killed in a fire at a southern Iraqi hospital’s Quode Unit.

Governor Miyah announced a three -day mourning in Vasit Province, saying that local authorities would file a case against the owner of the goods and the building contractor.

“The tragedy is a huge shock … and all the security measures need to be taken seriously,” he said.

Prime Minister Mohammad Shiite al -Sudani ordered “a thorough investigation” in the fire to identify “shortcomings” and prevent further incidents.

The Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, the high -ranking Shi’ite authority in Iraq, offered condolences to the families of the victims.