The governor of Nineveh, Najm al-Jabouri, announced early Wednesday that 114 people have died and more than 200 others have been injured due to a fire that engulfed a wedding hall in the district of Baghdida in Nineveh governorate.

Al-Jabouri stated in press statements that the fire consumed the Al-Haytham hall during a wedding ceremony, and civil defense and Iraqi Red Crescent teams are continuing the operations of retrieving bodies and assisting the injured.

This comes as Al-Sumaria News reported from a security source that among the fatalities were women and children.

The source, who was not named by Al-Sumaria, added that "the bodies of the bride and groom were extracted from inside the hall."

The Civil Defense Directorate revealed in a statement reported by (Waa) that "the wedding hall is clad with highly flammable eco-bond panels, which violate safety regulations and have been referred to the judiciary under the Civil Defense Law No. 44 of 2013 due to their lack of compliance with safety requirements regarding alarm and wet extinguishing systems in the Hamdaniya region of Nineveh governorate."

It added that "the fire led to the collapse of parts of the hall due to the use of low-cost highly flammable construction materials that can collapse within minutes when the fire breaks out."