NASIRIYAH, (Iraq): Grief and anger gripped the Iraqi city of Nasiriyah on Tuesday after fire swept through a temporary Covid isolation unit, killing at least 64 people and injuring dozens.
The devastating blaze on Monday evening at the southern city's Al-Hussein Hospital, which medics said was fuelled by oxygen canisters exploding, was the second such tragedy in Iraq in three months. "Sixty-four (bodies) were retrieved and 39 identified and handed over to their families," a source at the provincial forensic science department told AFP.
"Medical teams and relatives of victims are finding it difficult to identify the rest of the corpses," the source said, adding that the toll could rise as more bodies were feared buried under the rubble.
An official tally listed in local media said 39 of the victims so far identified were women.
The blaze also injured 100 people.
Smoke was still rising from the charred debris of the temporary building on Tuesday, as grieving relatives looked on.
In Al-Dawaya, east of Nasiriyah, a joint funeral was held for six members of a single family who had died in the inferno.
In Al-Nasr, north of the city, mourners laid to rest two brothers and two sisters who perished in the flames.
Other funerals were held in the Shiite holy city of Najaf, where mourner Yunus Saleh blamed politicians for the tragedy.
Hundreds of young protesters shut down private hospitals in Nasiriyah to pressure the authorities to open the doors of a new public hospital. Last month, Prime Minister Mustafa Khademi inaugurated the Turkish-built facility. But the more than 400-bed facility has yet to open to patients.
On Tuesday, Kadhimi declared three days of national mourning for the "martyrs" of Nasiriyah. The city is seen as the heart of a nationwide anti-government protest movement that broke out in late 2019.
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