BAGHDAD: Iraq has detained six local officials and suspended other public employees following a fire that killed 61 people at a shopping mall earlier this week, authorities said on Saturday. The blaze, which broke out late on Wednesday in a newly opened shopping mall in the eastern city of Kut, is the latest fatal disaster in a country where safety regulations are often ignored.
After an initial investigation, the interior ministry said "there was clear negligence among several officials and employees" in Kut, located around 160 kilometres southeast of Baghdad. It added that three local officials, including the head of civil defence in Kut, had been detained, and 17 employees suspended from work until further notice.
The Commission of Integrity, an anti-graft body, said later that security forces had detained three more officials "over the violations that led to the fire" at the Corniche Hypermarket Mall, including the head of the violations department at Kut's municipality. Officials say their investigation is ongoing, and the number of detainees may change.
Safety standards in Iraq's construction sector are often ignored, and the country — its infrastructure weakened by decades of conflict — frequently experiences fatal fires and accidents.
Fires increase during the blistering summer as temperatures approach 50 degrees Celsius.
The cause of the mall fire was not immediately known, but one survivor said that an air conditioner had exploded on the second floor before the five-storey building was rapidly engulfed in flames. Several people said that they lost family members — and in some cases whole families — who had gone to shop and dine at the mall days after it opened. — AFP
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