Fire at wedding hall in northern Iraq has killed more than 100 people and injured 150
Mosul (Iraq) (AP): A raging fire seemingly caused by fireworks set off to celebrate a Christian wedding consumed a hall packed with guests in northern Iraq, killing at least 100 people and injuring 150 others as authorities warned Wednesday the death toll could still rise.
Authorities said that flammable building materials also contributed to the latest disaster to hit Iraq's dwindling Christian minority. The fire happened in the Hamdaniya area of Iraq's Nineveh province, authorities said.
That's a predominantly Christian area just outside of the city of Mosul, some 335 kilometres (205 miles) northwest of Baghdad.
There was no official word on the cause of the blaze, but the Kurdish television news channel Rudaw aired footage showing fireworks shooting up from the floor of the event and setting a chandelier aflame.
In the blaze's aftermath, only charred metal and debris could be seen as people walked through the scene of the fire, the only light coming from television cameras and the lights of onlookers' mobile phones.
Survivors arrived at local hospitals in bandages, receiving oxygen, as their families milled through hallways and outside as workers organised more oxygen cylinders.
Some of those burned included children. Ambulance sirens wailed for hours after the fire as paramedics brought out the injured.
Other footage shown on other local television networks appeared to show the bride and groom on the dance floor when the fire began Tuesday night, stunned by the sight of the burning debris. It wasn't immediately clear if they were among those hurt.
"There were about to do a slow dance and then they lit up this thing for the dance which caught fire," one injured woman told Rudaw from a hospital gurney.
Another man injured in the fire at the hospital similarly told Rudaw that the blaze started as the couple prepared for their slow dance.
"They lit up fireworks," he said. "It hit the ceiling, which caught fire."
He added: "The entire hall was on fire in seconds."
Health officials in Nineveh province raised the death toll to 114, though federal officials did not immediately update their figure of at least 100 killed.
Health Ministry spokesman Saif al-Badr put the number of injured at 150 in that earlier statement carried by the state-run Iraqi News Agency.
"All efforts are being made to provide relief to those affected by the unfortunate accident," al-Badr said.
Ahmed Dubardani, a health official in the province, told Rudaw that many of those injured suffered serious burns.
"The majority of them were completely burned and some others had 50 to 60 per cent of their bodies burned," Dubardani said. "This is not good at all. The majority of them were not in good condition."
Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani ordered an investigation into the fire and asked the country's Interior and Health officials to provide relief, his office said in a statement online.
Najim al-Jubouri, the provincial governor of Nineveh, said some of the injured had been transferred to regional hospitals.
He cautioned there were no final casualty figures yet from the blaze, which suggests the death toll still may rise.
Hamdaniya is on Iraq's Nineveh Plains and under the control of its central government, though it is close to and claimed by Iraq's semiautonomous Kurdish regional government.
Masrour Barzani, the prime minister of the Kurdish region, ordered hospitals there to also help those hurt in the blaze.
Father Rudi Saffar Khoury, a priest at the wedding, said it was unclear who was to blame for the fire.
"It could be a mistake by the event organizers or venue hosts, or maybe a technical error," Khoury told The Associated Press. "It was a disaster in every sense of the word."
Civil defense officials quoted by the Iraqi News Agency described the wedding hall's exterior as decorated with highly flammable cladding that is illegal in the country.
"The fire led to the collapse of parts of the hall as a result of the use of highly flammable, low-cost building materials that collapse within minutes when the fire breaks out," civil defense said.
It wasn't immediately clear why authorities in Iraq allowed the cladding to be used on the hall, though corruption and mismanagement remains endemic two decades after the US-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein.
While some types of cladding can be made with fire-resistant material, experts say those that have caught fire at the wedding hall and elsewhere weren't designed to meet stricter safety standards and often were put onto buildings without any breaks to slow or halt a possible blaze.
That includes the 2017 Grenfell Fire in London that killed 72 people in the greatest loss of life in a fire on British soil since World War II, as well as multiple high-rise fires in the United Arab Emirates.
Over the past two decades, Iraq's Christian minority has been violently targeted by extremists first from al-Qaeda and then the Islamic State militant group.
Although the Nineveh Plains, the historic homeland, was wrested back from the Islamic State group six years ago, some towns are still mostly rubble and lack basic services. Many Christians have left for Europe, Australia or the United States.
The number of Christians in Iraq today is estimated at 150,000, compared to 1.5 million in 2003. Iraq's total population is more than 40 million.
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Mirabai carries Indian weightlifting as juniors rise but doping woes persist in 2025
New Delhi (PTI): Indian weightlifting once again revolved around the enduring brilliance of Mirabai Chanu, whose World Championships silver was the single biggest achievement for the sport in a year marked by doping concerns and senior-level stagnation.
Returning after an injury-forced hiatus of over a year, the Tokyo Olympics silver medallist claimed Commonwealth Championships gold on home soil.
She then added a World Championships silver in the 48kg category, reaffirming her status as the sport's flag-bearer even as the elusive 90kg snatch lift remained out of reach for her.
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Mirabai Magic
Chanu, who had been side-lined since the Paris Games in 2024, marked a successful return to competition by claiming the gold at the Commonwealth Championships in Ahmedabad in August, albeit against a weak field.
She sustained the momentum by adding a third World Championships medal to her glittering trophy cabinet.
The silver at Forde, Norway was achieved with a total lift of 199kg, 84kg in the snatch and 115kg in the clean and jerk section.
However, not only did the coveted 90kg snatch continue to elude her, the Manipuri lifter failed to even improve her personal best performance.
"In the context of Mirabai, this year has been good. She came to competition after a long time, and won a silver medal at the World Championships which was uplifting after the failure of Paris Olympics," chief coach Vijay Sharma told PTI.
In what can be construed as a fresh challenge for her, the International Weightlifting Federation changed the Olympic weight categories for the second time in a year.
In the latest reshuffle, Chanu's current 48kg category was dropped from the Olympic programme.
As a result, she will eventually have to move up to the 53kg class, the lowest women's category at the Los Angeles Games.
For now, she will continue competing in the 48kg division, with an eye on the Asian Games scheduled for next year, an event where a medal has remained out of her grasp.
Beyond Chanu, there were no other standout performances from the senior lifters during the season.
While Indians managed medals at the Commonwealth Championships against an inferior field, none of the performances came close to world-class standards.
At the Asian Championships too, Nirupama Devi finished fourth in the women's 64kg while Dilbag Singh was ninth in the men's 96kg category competition, reflecting that the Commonwealth level remains the only arena where India can consistently assert dominance.
Dope cheats galore
The persistent menace of doping once again cast a long shadow over Indian weightlifting.
India was flagged by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) as the worst doping offender for the third consecutive year, based on 2024 data, with weightlifting accounting for the second-highest number of violations.
The gravity of the situation was evident at the Khelo India University Games earlier this month, where several lifters reportedly went missing in action after entering their names.
The competition witnessed a spate of DNSs (Did Not Start) entries following the arrival of anti-doping officials.
Juniors make a mark
Amid the gloom, the rise of junior and youth lifters offered genuine hope as Indian weightlifting headed into a crucial year with the Asian Games and Commonwealth Games scheduled next season.
"The second line is developing well. The juniors did very well at the Commonwealth Championships.
"There were youth world records and their totals were very good, equal to what the senior national champions are lifting," Sharma said.
Koyel Bar set two youth world records at the Commonwealth Championships on home soil in August, while Priteesmita Bhoi broke the youth world record in clean and jerk on her way to winning gold in the girls' 44kg category at the Youth Asian Games later in the year.
