Relatives mourn loved ones killed in Iraq's wedding fire

Описание: (29 Sep 2023)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Hamdaniya, Nineveh Plains - 29 September 2023
1. Various of people mourning their loved ones
2. Various of people by coffins, holding pictures of victims
3. Various of religious rituals with grieving people by coffins
4. Various of people attending funeral
5. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Mutasim Naeem, lost daughter and brother in the fire:
"She was with me. It was her, her mother, and her little brother, we were together. She was holding her mother. But we lost her when the electricity went off. We don’t know what happened to her or where she went. This is my daughter, my only daughter, and this is her fiancée. How do I feel? My heart is burning for everyone and for my daughter."
6. Walk-by shot of people holding pictures of family members
7. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Wilson Shabo, lost wife in the fire incident:
"I live in America with my wife. She came here on a visit, and she died here. It was (the visit) for 18 days, and today she was supposed to return. Oh I don’t know what to say. I can’t not even talk. May God give us and the whole people in our area patience. It is a disaster zone now."
8. Various of funeral ceremony in cemetery
9. Various of people attending funeral mass at church

STORYLINE:
Hundreds of people on Friday took part in a funeral ceremony for a group of victims who lost their lives in a deadly wedding fire that killed around 100 people in the predominantly Christian Hamdaniya area of northern Iraq.

Several mourners held pictures of their loved ones as they wept near their coffins during the funeral in the Nineveh Plains of Nineveh province.

Around 250 panicked guests surged for the exits on Tuesday night in the Haitham Royal Wedding Hall in Hamdaniya near Mosul after the ceiling panels above a pyrotechnic machine burst into flames.

Two critically burned victims died from their injuries in a hospital, a health official told The Associated Press on Thursday.

The remains of a child and a woman were also recovered under the rubble at the wedding venue, according to a security official.

Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.

Authorities said around 100 people died in the incident, and the death toll is expected to rise further with at least 100 other people still injured, many of them critically burned.

The venue's owners have been accused of violating safety protocols.

The Mosul Municipality on Wednesday called for the closure of hotels, restaurants, and other venues that don't have safety approvals or have ignored warnings.

AP video shot by Ali Jabar

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