The official death toll in a hotel fire in the northern Iraqi city of Sulaimaniya is 29, not 40, the city’s police chief said on Friday.
“The official final death toll is 29 killed and 22 wounded,” Brigadier Najim-Eldeen Qader said. “Last night there was chaos at the hospital because of the large numbers of casualties. This could explain the mistake that happened in the death toll.”
It was initially reported that 40 people had died.
A security official said the fire in Iraq’s relatively stable and violence-free Kurdish region was not a terrorist act and the cause was under investigation.
The fire, at the Soma Hotel in the central area of the city, began late on Thursday and raged out of control for several hours. At least three of the victims died jumping from the third floor to escape the flames, an official said.
“Most of the people who were killed were choked because of the smoke. They could not get out,” said Dr Reqot Hama-Rasheed, head of the health department in the city.
Women and children were among the casualties.
“This is not a terrorist act. Most probably it was due to an electrical fault,” said Qader Hama-Jan, the head of local security operations.
Iraq’s minority Kurds were oppressed by Sunni dictator Saddam Hussein but have enjoyed virtual independence under Western protection since the end of the Gulf War.
As the rest of Iraq descended into sectarian warfare and a raging insurgency after the 2003 US-led invasion, Iraqi Kurdistan’s relative stability has drawn foreign investors, principally from Turkey and the Middle East. — Reuters