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A fire has torn through a shopping mall in the eastern Iraqi city of Kut, killing at least 60 people, as desperate people searched for missing relatives.
Officials have launched an investigation into the blaze, the latest in a country where safety regulations are frequently neglected.
At least two people said they had lost five relatives who had gone to the newly opened Hyper Mall for shopping and dinner.
“The tragic fire claimed the lives of 61 innocent citizens, most of whom suffocated in bathrooms, and among them 14 charred bodies yet to be identified,” the interior ministry said in a statement.
The Wasit province governor, Mohammed al-Miyahi, told the state INA news agency that the victims included men, women and children. A medical source in Kut told AFP there were “many unidentified bodies”.
Rescuers were still searching for the missing, an AFP correspondent reported from the scene.
Civil defence teams rescued more than 45 people who were trapped inside the five-storey building, which includes a restaurant and a supermarket, the interior ministry said.
The blaze broke out late on Wednesday, reportedly starting on the first floor before rapidly engulfing the building.
The cause was not immediately known, but one survivor told AFP an air conditioner had exploded.
Ambulances were still ferrying casualties to hospitals at 4am, with wards in Kut – around 160km (100 miles) south-east of Baghdad – overwhelmed.
An AFP correspondent said the mall had only opened five days earlier and reported seeing charred bodies at the province’s forensic department.
Though the fire was eventually contained, firefighters continued searching for missing victims.
Videos posted on social media showed distraught relatives waiting at the hospital for news, some collapsing in grief. One man sat on the ground, pounding his chest and crying out, “Oh my father, oh my heart”.
Dozens of people gathered outside the hospital checking ambulances as they arrived, some of them overcome with emotion.
One of them, Nasir al-Quraishi, a doctor in his 50s, said he had lost five family members in the fire. “A disaster has befallen us,” he told AFP. “We went to the mall to have some food, eat dinner and escape power cuts at home. An air conditioner exploded on the second floor and then the fire erupted – and we couldn’t escape.”
Miyahi declared three days of mourning and said local authorities would file a lawsuit against the mall’s owner and the building contractor. “The tragedy is a major shock ... and requires a serious review of all safety measures,” he said.
The Iraqi prime minister, Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, ordered a “thorough probe” into the fire to identify “shortcomings” and prevent further incidents. Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, Shiite Islam’s highest authority in Iraq, offered condolences to the victims’ families.
Safety standards in Iraq’s construction sector are often disregarded, and the country, whose infrastructure is in disrepair after decades of conflict, is often the scene of fatal fires and accidents. Fires increase during the blistering summer as temperatures approach 50
In September 2023, a fire killed at least 100 people when it ripped through a crowded Iraqi wedding hall, sparking a panicked rush for the exits. In July 2021, a fire in the Covid unit of a hospital in southern Iraq killed more than 60 people.
