More than 100 people have died and at least 150 are injured after a fire at a wedding celebration in Iraq’s Nineveh province.
The fire ripped through a large events hall in the north-eastern region after fireworks were lit during the celebration, local civil defence said, according to state media.
Nineveh Deputy Governor Hasan al-Allaq told Reuters that 113 people had been confirmed dead, with state media putting the death toll at at least 100 with 150 injured.
Eyewitnesses at the site said the building caught fire at around 10:45pm local time (8:45pm UK time) and that hundreds of people were in attendance at the time of the incident.
Video from the site shows firefighters clambering over the charred wreckage of the building in search of survivors.
Preliminary information indicated that the building was made of highly flammable construction materials, contributing to
its rapid collapse, state media said.
Ambulances and medical crews were dispatched to the site by federal Iraqi authorities and authorities in Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdistan region, according to official statements.
“All our hospitals are preparing to receive the wounded,” Dr Bashar Jader, spokesman for the Nineveh General Directorate of Health, told the Rudaw news site in the country.
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