Iraq’s PM visits wedding fire victims as two more people succumb to injuries

Baghdad: Iraq’s prime minister on Thursday visited injured patients and the families of victims in northern Iraq days after a deadly wedding fire killed around 100 people, as two more people died from their injuries.

Mohammed Shia al-Sudani arrived in Nineveh province early Thursday with a delegation of ministers and security officials, state television reported.

He met with the wounded and family members of victims at Hamdaniyah Hospital and Al-Jumhoori Hospital.

He later visited the Syriac Catholic Mar Behnam Monastery to express his condolences to victims.

A health official, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with regulations, told The Associated Press that two critically burned victims a 30-year-old woman and a 4-year-old child died from their injuries.

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

Authorities said around 100 people died in the incident, and the death toll is expected to rise 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.

Funeral processions continued Thursday at the Saint Behnam Syriac Catholic

Church.