A bride lost her ‘entire family’ including her three brothers and her husband’s mother after a deadly fire tore through their venue during the newlywed’s first dance in Iraq, it has emerged.
Newlyweds Haneen and Ravan had been slow-dancing during their Christian wedding in the northern town of Qaraqosh near Mosul when their ceremony turned into one of nightmares.
New terrifying video shows hundreds of panicked wedding guests screaming and shouting for their loved ones before they sprinted towards the exits of the large hall as the flames quickly spread across a decorated chandelier on the roof.
The room turned a dark red as the flames began rapidly climbing up the walls and a woman can be heard screaming in terror as burning material collapsed onto the white table tops below.
The couple, who had initially been feared dead, managed to escape through the kitchen. But more than 100 wedding guests, including the bride’s three brothers, her uncles and young cousins as well as the groom’s mother, all perished in the fire.
The ‘minor burns’ they suffered in the fire far outweigh the crushing blow of losing so many family members, a friend of the couple, Jamil al-Jamil said.
‘The bride lost her whole family – three brothers, all of her uncles and her young cousins. The groom lost his mother,’ Jamil said.
Newlyweds Haneen and Ravan had been slow-dancing during their Christian wedding in the northern town of Qaraqosh near Mosul when their ceremony turned into one of nightmares
The video shows one woman screaming as the large burning chandelier collapses onto a table and envelopes it with flames
Haneen (left) and Ravan (right), who had initially been feared dead, managed to escape through the kitchen. But more than 100 wedding guests, including the bride’s three brothers, her uncles and young cousins as well as the groom’s mother, all perished in the fire
Harrowing new video shows the happily married couple slow-dancing in the hall and laughing together before they turned around in horror to see flames climbing up the walls before burning material falls from the roof.
The terrifying footage shows the debris falling on one man’s head before he quickly tries to put the fire out, but within seconds the flaming pieces of material begin falling in quick succession.
Chaos ensues, with the up to 900 panicked guests grabbing their children and elderly relatives by the hands and rushing towards the exits as the hall is engulfed in flames and filled with toxic smoke within seconds. Survivors said many were left trapped in the burning building as they couldn’t see through the black smoke.
The video shows one woman screaming as the large burning chandelier collapses onto a table and envelopes it with flames. Smoke can be seen quickly filling up the room and panicked guests can be heard screaming for people to run.
At least 150 people suffered burns, smoke inhalation or crush injuries sustained in the stampede when the nearly 900 panicked guests tried to escape through the hall’s few exits.
Those who survived the inferno have described it as ‘hell’ with children as young as eight months old and entire families – including a couple and their three-year-old child – among the dead.
‘This was not a wedding. This was hell,’ said Mariam Khedr, crying and hitting herself as she waited for officials to return the bodies of her daughter Rana Yakoub, 27, and three young grandchildren – the youngest being eight months old.
Chaotic scenes were seen outside the building, with screaming guests crying for help from medics who had quickly arrived on the scene.
The newlyweds ran for their lives and managed to escape through the kitchen, narrowly avoiding death.
It’s understood the couple – who earlier beamed at cameras on what should have been a special day – are being treated at a hospital in Erbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan, where sources told the news outlet that their psychological situation is ‘dire’.
‘The bride lost her whole family – three brothers, all of her uncles and her young cousins. The groom lost his mother,’ their friend Jamil said.
Anger has flared over the high death toll, which authorities have blamed in part on poorly observed safety regulations, an insufficient number of fire exits and the use of highly flammable building materials.
Authorities have arrested 14 people – the venue’s owner and 10 employees as well as three people suspected of having set off the fireworks, the interior minister said.
New terrifying video shows hundreds of panicked wedding guests screaming and shouting for their loved ones before they sprinted towards the exits of the large hall as the flames quickly spread across a decorated chandelier on the roof
Smoke can be seen quickly filling up the room and panicked guests can be heard screaming for people to run
At least 150 people suffered burns, smoke inhalation or crush injuries sustained in the stampede when the nearly 900 panicked guests tried to escape through the hall’s few exits. Video footage from outside the burning building
Volunteers search for the remains of missing bodies following a fatal fire at a wedding celebration in Iraq on Thursday
More than 100 people were killed, with hundreds more gathering for their funerals
Mourners carry a coffin during the funeral of victims of the fatal fire at a wedding celebration, in Hamdaniya, Iraq, on Thursday
A woman cries out in grief during the funeral of victims of the fatal fire at a wedding celebration, in Hamdaniya, Iraq, on Thursday
A general view of the damaged building following a fatal fire at a wedding celebration on Thursday
A general view of the damaged building following a fatal fire at a wedding celebration on Thursday
A man wipes away tears during a funeral for victims of the wedding hall fire on Friday
A woman’s bag lies among charred objects inside the Al-Haitham hall in Qaraqosh, also known as Hamdaniyah, days after a fire broke out during a wedding
The father of the groom told CNN: ‘I hold the owner of the hall responsible for what happened at the party because there are no extinguishers or safety measures in the hall.’
Another guest told private Iraqi channel Alawla TV: ‘The bride and groom are fine. I was just with them now, but their condition is devastating due to what happened to people here.’
Injured guests were transferred to hospitals for treatment in the nearby cities of Erbil, Mosul and Duhok.
Nader Salm, a 49-year-old translator from Qaraqosh – also known as Hamdaniya – told CNN that the wedding tragedy ‘hurt us more than ISIS’. The guest added: ‘At least when ISIS came we could escape, but now a wedding became a graveyard for us.’
‘Islamic State didn’t kill us, this catastrophe killed us,’ Priest Boutros Shito said, speaking at a local church hall while mourners buried the remains of their loved ones.
Shito lost both his parents, two of his sisters and two nephews to the fire, which tore through a packed wedding hall on Wednesday.
‘In this country we always wait until a disaster occurs and then deal with the results,’ Shito said. ‘Our home is now empty of family because of greed and corruption.’
Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani, who has declared three days of national mourning, visited victims of the blaze at two local hospitals on Thursday and said he directed that the strictest-possible legal penalties be imposed ‘on those who were negligent and responsible for the tragic fire incident’.
Witnesses said the blaze began about an hour into the event when flares set fire to a ceiling decoration. They said the hall had no visible fire extinguishers and few emergency exits and that it took firefighters half an hour to get there.
Injured wedding guests were later seen lying in hospital beds with bandages covering the burns they sustained in the horrific blaze. But more than 100 never made it out alive.
‘I lost my daughter, her husband and their 3 year-old. They were all burned. My heart is burning,’ a woman said outside the morgue, where bodies lay outside in bags as vehicles came to collect those that had been identified.
A man called Youssef stood nearby with burns covering his hands and face. He said he had not been able to see anything when the fire began and the power cut out. He had grabbed his 3 year-old grandson and managed to get out.
But his wife, Bashra Mansour, in her 50s, did not make it. She fell in the chaos and died.
Hundreds of wedding guests, many of them children, were rushed to hospital with severe burns across their bodies, with many fighting for their lives.
Volunteers search for the remains of missing bodies following a fatal fire at the wedding celebration on Thursday
Volunteers search for the remains of missing bodies following a fatal fire at the wedding celebration on Thursday
Mourners are overcome with emotion at the site of the fatal fire on Thursday
A victim lies at a hospital following a fatal fire at a wedding celebration in the district of Hamdaniya on Wednesday
A young victim of the fire lies at a hospital in Erbil, Iraq, on Wednesday
A child is among the 150 victims recovering, and is being cared for at a hospital in Erbil, Iraq
Wedding guest Rania Waad, who sustained a burn to her hand, said that as Haneen and Revan ‘were slow dancing, the fireworks started to climb to the ceiling and the whole hall went up in flames’.
‘We couldn’t see anything,’ the 17-year-old said, choking back sobs. ‘We were suffocating, we didn’t know how to get out.’
Other wedding guests also said that the blaze was caused by fireworks, which had been set off during the first dance.
A man injured in the fire, speaking from his hospital bed, said: ‘They lit up fireworks. It hit the ceiling, which caught fire. The entire hall was on fire in seconds.’
Safety standards are often poorly observed in Iraq, a country still recovering from decades of dictatorship, war and unrest that remains plagued by corruption, mismanagement and often dilapidated infrastructure.
In 2021, dozens of people were killed in two separate fires that raged through hospital wards.
A previous major tragedy struck Mosul in 2019, when at least 100 people, mostly women and children, died when an overcrowded ferry sank in the Tigris river.
Among the mourners at the Al-Tahera church was Riad Bahnam, 53, who came to pray for his sister-in-law and his six-year-old great-niece, both of whom died in the flames.
He likened the fire to ‘the tragedy of the boat in Mosul’ and said the wedding had been a moment of ‘joy which turned into sadness and anger’.
Bahnam voiced anger at the ‘human error’ he blamed for the deadly tragedy that heaped suffering on the small community.
Any official ‘who has committed negligence in giving the required authorisations to the owner is also responsible,’ he charged.
‘They are supposed to demand compliance with safety standards.’
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