Around 50 people were killed and injured in a fire that swept through a shopping mall in the eastern Iraqi city of Kut, state media said Thursday. “The number of victims has reached about 50 people, martyrs and injured, in the tragic fire at a major shopping centre,” Wasit province governor Mohammed al-Miyahi told the official INA news agency. The blaze at the Hyper Mall broke out late Wednesday, but the cause has yet to be identified, said Miyahi. Ambulances were still transporting casualties as late as 4:00 am, filling beds of a hospital in Kut, about 160 kilometres (100 miles) southeast of Baghdad.
