Iraq: four people killed after Baghdad restaurant collapses

Initial investigation says the incident in the Jadriya area was caused by gas explosion

Iraqi Civil Defence workers sift through rubble at the site of the collapse of a fast-food restaurant after an explosion caused by a leak from cooking gas, in Baghdad on Sunday. Reuters
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A gas explosion flattened a restaurant in the Iraqi capital Baghdad on Sunday, killing four workers, an Iraqi Interior Ministry official has told The National.

Two other civilians were wounded when the two-storey restaurant, called Laila, collapsed in the Jadriya area of the city, he said. The injured bystanders were outside the building.

An initial investigation report found that a leak from cooking gas caused the explosion, he added. The official said rescue operations to extricate the bodies from the rubble lasted about six hours.

Buildings in Iraq often lack proper safety standards and most are constructed with building code violations due to widespread corruption and weak government monitoring.

Construction companies and contractors submit plans to local authorities that have been drawn to minimum safety standards, but then change them during construction to cut costs. In the past, the consequences of these shortcuts have been catastrophic.

In 2016, about 300 people were killed in a car bombing in Baghdad’s bustling central Karradah commercial area. Most of the deaths resulted not from the blast itself, but because people could not escape the building when an inferno erupted following the blast.

Investigators said the building had been constructed with a lack of fire escapes and was clad in highly combustible plastic.

Updated: May 29, 2022, 5:32 PM