Firefighters collect in entrance of a burning hypermarket constructing in Kut, Iraq, Thursday, July 17, 2025. — Picture by Related Press
BAGHDAD — A hearth engulfed a newly opened purchasing middle in japanese Iraq, killing greater than 60 individuals, together with kids, Iraqi officers stated Thursday.
Civil protection groups rescued greater than 45 individuals who turned trapped when the fireplace broke out late Wednesday within the metropolis of Kut, the Inside Ministry stated in an announcement. Others are nonetheless lacking, in accordance with the state-run Iraqi Information Company.
Pictures and movies on native media confirmed the Corniche Hypermarket Mall, a five-story purchasing middle that had opened solely per week earlier, totally engulfed in flames.
Poor constructing requirements have typically contributed to tragic fires in Iraq. In July 2021, a blaze at a hospital within the Iraqi metropolis of Nasiriyah that killed between 60 to 92 individuals was decided to have been fueled by extremely flammable, low-cost kind of “sandwich panel” cladding that’s unlawful in Iraq.
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In 2023, greater than 100 individuals died in a hearth at a marriage corridor within the predominantly Christian space of Hamdaniya in Nineveh province after the ceiling panels above a pyrotechnic machine burst into flames..
Iraq’s Ministry of Inside stated in an announcement that 61 individuals died within the purchasing middle fireplace, most of them from suffocation. Among the many lifeless had been 14 charred our bodies that stay unidentified, it stated.
Provincial Gov. Mohammed al-Mayyeh in an announcement declared three days of mourning. He stated the reason for the fireplace is beneath investigation however that authorized circumstances had been filed in opposition to the constructing proprietor and purchasing middle proprietor. He didn’t specify what the fees had been.
“We guarantee the households of the harmless victims that we are going to not be lenient with those that had been instantly or not directly chargeable for this incident,” al-Mayyeh stated.
The outcomes of the preliminary investigation will probably be launched inside 48 hours, he stated.
Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammad Shia al-Sudani stated in an announcement that he had directed the inside minister to go to the location of the fireplace to research and take measures to stop a recurrence. /das
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