Fire at newly opened Iraq shopping mall kills more than 60
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Officials said many people suffocated in bathrooms, while one person told AFP that his five relatives died in an elevator.
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The blaze — the latest in a country where safety regulations are frequently neglected — broke out late Wednesday, reportedly starting on the first floor before rapidly engulfing the five-storey Corniche Hypermarket Mall.
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Several people told AFP they lost families including mothers and children who had gone to shop and dine at the mall, days after it opened in Kut — around 160 kilometres (100 miles) southeast of Baghdad.
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Footage shared on social media showed people including children standing on the roof, calling for help.
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Ali Kadhim, 51, has been shuttling between the mall and the main hospital, where the victims were taken, looking for his cousin, who is missing with his wife and three children.
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Back at the mall, he waited anxiously as rescuers searched for victims in the wreckage, with an ambulance on standby.
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'We don't know what happened to them,' he said.
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An AFP correspondent at the scene said the blaze had been contained and the front of the building was severely charred.
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The interior ministry said in a statement that '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.'
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'We couldn't escape'
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INA news agency later quoted a medical source who put the toll at 63 dead and 40 injured.
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A medical source in Kut told AFP there were 'many unidentified bodies'.
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Civil defence teams rescued more than 45 people who were trapped inside the building, which includes a restaurant and a supermarket, the interior ministry said.
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Ambulances ferried casualties as late as 4:00 am, with wards in Kut overwhelmed.
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One man fell apart, pounding his chest and screaming.
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