Lankan killed in Iraq fire
16 July 2010 08:43 am
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A Sri Lankan was among 40 people killed in a hotel fire in northern Iraq, the chairman of the company he worked for told AFP today. He was working for a Telecommunications company in iraq.
"We lost four engineers from our company, one of them a woman from the Philippines, and three of them men from Sri Lanka, Cambodia and Iraq," said Faruk Mula Mustafa, chairman of telecoms operator Asiacell.
Meanwhile Reuters reported that the fire was not a terrorist act and the cause was under investigation. The fire, at the Soma Hotel in the central area of the city, began late on Thursday and raged out of control for several hours. At least three of the victims died jumping from the third floor to escape the flames, an official said.
"Most of the people who were killed were choked because of the smoke. They could not get out," said Dr. Reqot Hama-Rasheed, head of the health department in the city.