A gas tank used for a residential heating system in the Goizha City area of Sulaymaniyah exploded late on Thursday, leaving 15 people dead and wounding 12 more, Roj News reported. Children were among the casualties from the blast.
Three residential buildings were destroyed in the incident. According to the Director of Civil Defence in Sulaymaniyah, Dyar Ibrahim, the explosion was caused by an unauthorised technician who was working on the property’s fuel tank. He died in the incident as well.
One of the affected families were celebrating a child’s birthday, for which they invited most of their relatives, including the technician, who tried to fix the heating system, Ibrahim added.
It took 17 hours for the rescue team to pull all the bodies out from the rubble.
The governor of Sulaymaniyah, Haval Abu Bakr, declared a day of mourning for the victims of the explosion.
Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK), in a written statement, expressed its condolences to the families of the dead and wished a speedy recovery for the injured.