A FIRE at a shopping centre in eastern Iraq has killed more than 60 people, including women and children, the provincial governor said today.

Mohammed al-Mayyeh declared three days of mourning following the fire, which began on Wednesday.

Few other details were available about the fire in Kut, a town in the province of Wasit.

The governor said the cause of the fire was under investigation, but legal cases had been filed against the owners of the building and the shopping centre business. He did not specify the charges.

“We assure the families of the innocent victims that we will not be lenient with those who were directly or indirectly responsible for this incident,” Mr Mayyeh said.

Poor building standards have often contributed to tragic fires in Iraq. In July 2021, a blaze at a hospital in the city of Nasiriyah that killed between 60 to 92 people was found to have been fuelled by a highly flammable, low-cost type of “sandwich panel” cladding that is illegal in Iraq.

In 2023, more than 100 people died in a fire at a wedding hall in the predominantly Christian area of Hamdaniya in Nineveh province after the ceiling panels above a pyrotechnic machine burst into flames.