Dozens dead after fire at shopping centre in Iraq

Firefighters at the scene of the blaze in Kut, Iraq. Picture: Hadi Mizban/AP

A fire at a newly opened shopping centre in eastern Iraq has killed more than 60 people, including women and children, Iraqi officials said.

Iraq’s Ministry of Interior said in a statement that 61 people died, most of them from suffocation, in the fire that broke out late Wednesday in the city of Kut in the province of Wasit.