15 killed in Iraq after gas tank blast triggers building collapse

Fifteen people died and around a dozen were injured in northern Iraq when a fuel tank exploded, causing a building to collapse, authorities said on Friday as search operations ended.

Provincial governor Haval Abu Bakr provided the final toll for Thursday evening’s blast in Sulaimaniyah, the second-largest city of Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan region, and declared a day of mourning in the province.

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On Thursday night, Kurdish officials and local media reports said that an unknown number of people were trapped under the rubble.

Masrour Barzani, prime minister of the semi-autonomous Kurdish-controlled region in northern Iraq, ordered an investigation.

Excavators work on a site where a large gas cylinder exploded in a residential area in Sulaimaniya, Iraq. Reuters

“Most of the victims are women and children,” Abu Bakr said, adding that “there are no more bodies under the rubble of the house.” He added that a child was among the victims, INA reported.

Civil defence firefighters managed to contain the fire that broke out in the residential area after the gas cylinder exploded.

The fire damaged several houses and destroyed at least five vehicles, police said. Police officers said at least three houses were completely destroyed by the explosion.

Authorities said the three-story building collapsed after a leak from a liquefied petroleum gas tank used for heating, triggered a blast. The tank was installed on the rooftop of one of the homes.

The site where a large gas cylinder exploded in a residential area in Sulaimaniya, Iraq. Reuters

Emergency services still searching for survivors had given an earlier toll of 11, but several hours later the city’s emergency response chief Saman Nader announced “the end of operations,” with 15 bodies found in total.

Local residents had watched on Friday morning as rescue workers, assisted by a backhoe, searched among collapsed bricks and twisted metal.

The explosion shattered the windows and blackened the facade of a neighbouring building.

Bafel Jalal Talabani, head of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) in power in Sulaimaniyah, said he would finance the reconstruction of the building and those nearby.

Agencies