Two newlyweds have said they feel ‘dead inside’ after more than 100 people died when a fire broke out at their wedding in Iraq.
Haneen and Ravan were slow-dancing at the wedding venue in Qaracosh, near to the city of Mosul, when their big day suddenly descended into tragedy.
One survivor, 17-year-old Raniaa Waad, recalled seeing ‘fireworks starting to climb to the ceiling and the whole hall went up in flames’.
She told news agency AFP: “We couldn’t see anything. We were suffocating, we didn’t know how to get out.”
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A large number of the bride and groom’s friends and family were killed after the blaze ripped through the venue in Iraq’s Nineveh province.
Haneen, 18, lost her mother and brother among the 10 victims from her family, while her 27-year-old husband Ravan lost 15 relatives in total.
The blaze was rumoured to have stemmed from indoor fireworks, but Revan said it may have started in the ceiling of the building.
Speaking to Sky News, he said: "It could be a short-circuit, I don't know.
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“But the fire started in the ceiling.
“We felt the heat… When I heard the crackling I looked at the ceiling.
“Then the ceiling, which was all nylon, started to melt. It only took seconds."
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While the day was supposed to be the happiest of his life, Revan said he and Haneen were understandably devastated.
"Inside we are dead,” he said.
“We are numb. We are dead inside."
He added that his wife ‘can’t speak’ following the tragic incident, which also left her dad in intensive care in hospital.
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Revan remembers how there was a power cut just before their first dance, after which he noticed flames in the ceiling as the lights came back on.
The newlywed husband spoke of how he had to rescue his new wife, dragging her to safety when she couldn’t escape herself because of her long wedding dress.
He said: "I kept dragging her and trying to get her out of the kitchen entrance. As people were fleeing, people were trampling on her.
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“Her legs are injured.
“Our relatives, our friends, our loved ones are all gone."
Authorities have since said that flammable building materials contributed to the disaster.
Jamil al-Jamil, a friend of the couple, told local media: "The crushing blow of losing so many family members far outweighs the 'minor burns' they suffered in the fire.
“The bride lost her whole family - three brothers, all of her uncles and her young cousins.
“The groom lost his mother."
Jess Hardiman