According to two police sources and the city’s health authorities, a huge fire in a hypermarket in al-Kut city, eastern Iraq, has killed at least 61 people and left 11 more missing, Reuters reported on Thursday.
Social media users shared videos of a five-story structure in al-Kut engulfed in flames overnight while firefighters attempted to suppress the fire.
“We have compiled a list of 59 victims whose identities have been confirmed, but one body was so badly burned that it has been extremely difficult to identify,” a health department official told Reuters.
According to municipal official Ali al-Mayahi, “we have more bodies that have not been recovered still under fire debris,” he told Reuters.
