At least sixty‑one people lost their lives when a devastating fire swept through the newly opened six‑storey Corniche Hypermarket Mall in Kut, Iraq. Survivors say the inferno began late Wednesday night when an air‑conditioning unit on the first floor exploded, igniting nearby merchandise and sending flames racing up through the building.
Shocking videos posted to social media show thick black smoke billowing from shattered windows as terrified shoppers—men, women, and children—crowded the rooftop, desperately awaiting rescue. Firefighters braved the blaze to pull dozens to safety, while ambulance crews ferried injured victims to hospitals well into the early hours.
By dawn, rescue teams were still combing the charred wreckage for missing patrons. Chilling photographs captured the mall’s skeleton—its exterior walls scorched, interiors gutted. A medical official on scene confirmed that many of the bodies recovered were too badly burned to identify, and that among the dead were both adults and children who succumbed after becoming trapped in smoke‑filled restrooms and service corridors.
Iraq’s Interior Ministry issued a statement mourning “61 innocent citizens, most of whom suffocated in bathrooms,” and noting that fourteen of the victims remain unidentified. Authorities have launched a full investigation into safety protocols at the Corniche Mall, seeking to determine how evacuation procedures failed and what role the faulty air‑conditioning unit played in unleashing such a rapid, lethal blaze.