Iraq wedding fire: What we know about Qaraqosh blaze - BBC News

Almost 100 people have been killed by a blaze that swept through a wedding party in Qaraqosh.

22 hours agoShareclose panelShare pageCopy linkAbout sharingImage source, EPAImage caption, Authorities said preliminary information suggested the fire was started by the fireworksBy David GrittenBBC NewsA fire swept through a Christian wedding party in northern Iraq on Tuesday night, killing almost 100 people. Here is what we know.

Where did it happen?It ripped through al-Haitham Hall, a large event venue which is located on the outskirts of the northern town of Qaraqosh. Also known as Bakhdida, it is the main centre of al-Hamdaniya district and is about 15km (9 miles) south-east of the city of Mosul.

Qaraqosh was the biggest Christian town in Iraq - with a population of about 50,000, most of them Assyrians - before it was overrun by the Sunni Muslim jihadist group Islamic State (IS) in 2014. The town is still being rebuilt and about half of its residents are said to have returned.

How did the blaze start?Investigators are trying to establish the cause, but witnesses said the blaze started between 22:00 and 22:45 local time (19:00-19:45 GMT), when several fireworks were lit during the wedding.

"There were around 1,000 to 1,100 guests. The wedding was going well," one man told Rudaw, an Iraqi Kurdish news agency.

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