A Massive Fire Engulfed A Wedding Hall In Iran: Nearly 114 Killed Including The Bride And Groom, Says Report.
A massive fire swallowed a Christian wedding hall in Iraq. Nearly 114 people reported to be killed. The incident happened in Al-Hamdaniya district in northern Nineveh province.
Though no official statements were released regarding the cause of fire, as per the footage shown by Rudaw, a Kurdish television news channel, fireworks set from the floor of the hall kindled the fire by setting the chandelier aflame. As per report, the fire engulfed the hall within seconds and spitted out “charred metals and debris”. Other footage shown by local media shows the panic stricken faces of bride and groom from the dance floor.
Survivors reached local hospitals to recieve oxygen and dress up wounds. Though federal officials did not confirm the death toll to be 114, health officials in Nineveh province alleged the death toll to be 114. Saif-Al-Badr, Healthy Ministry Spokesperson stated the numbers of injured to be 150, as per the Iraqi News Agency.
According to Ahmed Dubardani, health official, “the majority of the injured were completely burned and some others had 50 to 60 percentage of their bodies burned. This is not good at all. The majority of them were not in good condition”, he said to Rudaw, the Kurdish television news channel.
The provincial governor of Nineveh, Najim al-Jubouri said as there were no final casualty figures yet from the blaze, the death toll still may rise.
Prime Minister, Muhammed Shia al-Sudani urged the Interior and Health officials to provide relief and ordered a thorough investigation into the matter, as per report.
A priest who attended the wedding, Father Rudy Saffar Khoury told the Associated Press that, “It could be a mistake by the event organisers or venue hosts or maybe a technical error. It was a disaster in every sense of the word”.
“The fire led to the collapse of parts of the hall as a result of the use of highly inflammable, low-cost building materials that collapse within minutes when fire breaks out”, said Civil Defence officials as quoted by Iraqi News Agency.
Though the area is a Christian majority area taken back from the Islamic State group before six years, some towns still lacks basic facilities. The fire is a major blow to the already dwindling Christian population of Iraq. For the past two decades, the Christians are has been prey to the violent attacks of extremists group Al – Qaida and Islamic State militant group.
