A devastating fire broke out late on Wednesday at a shopping mall in Kut, a city in Eastern Iraq, killing at least 60 people and leaving 11 others missing, according to local authorities.
Videos circulating on social media show flames engulfing a five-story building during the night as firefighters battled to contain the blaze. Witnesses reported scenes of panic as relatives gathered outside the burning structure, anxiously awaiting news of their loved ones.
🇮🇶 At least fifty people have been killed after a large fire broke out at shopping mall in the city of Kut in eastern Iraq, the governor reported. pic.twitter.com/M28jNVTR72
— CAIN (@XTechPulse) July 17, 2025
“There are still unrecovered bodies under the rubble”
The fire reportedly started on the first floor of the newly opened shopping mall, which had only been in operation for five days. Local media sources have indicated that many of the victims were women and children who had been shopping or visiting for leisure.
A local journalist described seeing charred bodies at a nearby hospital, while emergency workers warned that more victims may still be trapped beneath the debris. “We have identified 59 victims, but one body is so badly burned that identification has been extremely difficult,” a health official of the city told Reuters.
“There are still unrecovered bodies under the rubble,” added city official Ali al-Mayahi.
A fire tore through a newly opened shopping mall in the eastern Iraqi city of Kut overnight, killing at least 61 people, authorities said Thursday, as grief-stricken families searched for missing relatives. https://t.co/MnGtlEgIJa pic.twitter.com/3sow3LuuM2
— AFP News Agency (@AFP) July 17, 2025
Cause of fire
The cause of the fire remains under investigation. However, the governor of Wasit Province announced that preliminary findings would be released within 48 hours, according to Iraq’s state-operated news agency INA.
The governor also confirmed that legal action has been taken against both the owner of the building and the mall operator, and declared three days of official mourning across the province.
#BREAKING: At least 50 people, mostly women and children, were killed in a fire that broke out early Thursday at a shopping mall in the city of Kut, Iraq’s Wasit province, Governor Mohammed Jameel al-Miyahi announced. The blaze has since been brought under control.
🎥: Social… pic.twitter.com/c5dZF9hukx
— Zoom News (@zoomnewskrd) July 17, 2025
Major building fires in Iraq
Over the past decade, Iraq has witnessed a series of catastrophic fires in commercial and public buildings, underscoring chronic failures in infrastructure safety, regulatory enforcement, and emergency preparedness. The most recent tragedy, the fire at the Corniche Hypermarket Mall in Kut on Wednesday, claimed over 60 lives, with many dying due to suffocation.
This incident echoes previous tragedies, notably the 2023 Qaraqosh wedding hall fire in the province of Nineveh, which claimed 100 lives. That fire was triggered when pyrotechnics ignited highly flammable ceiling decorations. In 2021, a fire at a COVID-19 unit in Al-Hussein Hospital in Nasiriyah killed over 60 people, when an improperly stored oxygen tank went up in flames.
These events share a common thread: poor construction standards, corrupt or absent oversight, and a lack of functional safety protocols. Building codes, where they exist, are often ignored. Fire exits are blocked or nonexistent, alarms are missing, and emergency response teams are under-resourced.
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