Dozens dead after fire at shopping centre in Iraq
Among the dead were 14 bodies that remain unidentified, it said.
Civil defence teams were able to rescue more than 45 people who were trapped inside the building, the statement said.
Iraqi security forces at the scene of the fire in Kut (Hadi Mizban/AP)
Photographs and videos on local media showed the Corniche Hypermarket Mall, a five-story shopping centre that had opened only a week earlier, fully engulfed in flames.
The state-run Iraqi News Agency reported that people remained missing. Photographs and videos on local media showed the building fully engulfed in flames.
Provincial governor Mohammed al-Mayyeh declared three days of mourning. He said the cause of the fire is under investigation but that legal cases were filed against the building owner and shopping centre owner. He did not specify what the charges were.
'We assure the families of the innocent victims that we will not be lenient with those who were directly or indirectly responsible for this incident,' he said.
The results of the preliminary investigation will be released within 48 hours, he added.
Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammad Shia al-Sudani said in a statement that he had directed the interior minister to go to the site of the fire to investigate.
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