A bride lost her ‘entire family’ including her three brothers and her mother-in-law 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 crushing blow of losing so many family members far outweighs the ‘minor burns’ they suffered in the fire, a friend of the couple, Jamil al-Jamil said.
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.
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