Baghdad: Officials struggled Friday to identify more than a dozen bodies pulled from a deadly shopping mall fire in Iraq, amid ongoing investigations into what caused the blaze.
An Iraqi medical official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to comment said the final death toll was 63, including 18 bodies that could not be identified due to the severity of the burns and would undergo DNA testing.
The Corniche Hypermarket mall in the town of Kut in Wasit province, a
five-story building containing restaurants, shops and a supermarket, had opened
just days before the blaze, which officials said broke out late Wednesday on the second floor in an area selling perfume and cosmetics.
Civil defence crews were able to rescue 45 people from the burning building. Officials said that most of those who died were trapped on the upper floors.
While the cause of the fire has not yet been determined, officials blamed lack of safety standards in the building for the scale of the tragedy.
Provincial Gov Mohammed al-Miyahi has said that the building owner did not implement fire safety measures and had not applied for required permits.
The provincial council of Wasit on Thursday voted to form committees to carry out building safety inspections and to suspend
the director of Kut municipality and the director of occupational safety until investigations into the fire
are complete.