Baghdad, Sep 27 (EFE).- At least 100 people died and some 150 sustained injuries and burns after a fire broke out at a wedding hall in Nineveh in northern Iraq, the provincial health department said Wednesday.

The fire occurred in the Al-Hamdaniya district of the province.

The scene of a fire that broke out at a wedding hall in Hamdaniya, in Iraq’s Nineveh province, north of Iraq, 27 September 2023. EFE-EPA/MOHAMAD SAIF

The civil defense directorate said that the wedding hall was covered with highly flammable Ecobond panels in violation of safety regulations which led to the collapse of parts of the hall, state-run Iraq News Agency reported.

Health Minister Saleh Mahdi Al-Hasnawi directed the ministry’s departments in Nineveh and the neighboring provinces to be mobilized to aid and treat those injured in the fire.

Prime Minister Muhammad Shiaa Al-Sudani has directed the interior and health ministers to mobilize all efforts to provide relief to the affected.

Nineveh governor Najm Al-Jubouri told the Iraqi state news agency that the injured had been taken to hospitals in the province and the Kurdistan Region.

He said that there was no final count of the deceased and injured. EFE

rrt/pd