Iraq wedding fire kills more than 100, relatives identify bodies

People and emergency personnel gather at the site following a fatal fire at a wedding celebration, in the district of Hamdaniya in Iraq's Nineveh province, Iraq, September 27, 2023. REUTERS/Khalid Al-Mousily

MOSUL, Iraq (Reuters) - A fire ripped through a packed wedding hall in northern Iraq late on Tuesday, killing more than 100 people in a Christian town that had survived Islamic State occupation.

Fire fighters searched the charred remains of the building in Qaraqosh, also known as Hamdaniya, through Wednesday morning and bereaved relatives gathered outside a morgue in the nearby city of Mosul, wailing and rocking in distress.