A fire at a hotel in the northern Iraqi city of Sulaimaniya, possibly triggered by a gas leak, killed 30 people, including foreigners, and injured at least 22 others, police said on Friday.
"The official final death toll is 29 killed and 22 wounded," Brigadier Najim-Eldeen Qader said. "Last night there was chaos at the hospital because of the large numbers of casualties. This could explain the mistake that happened in the death toll."
Four Americans and three visiting telecommunications engineers from the Philippines, Sri Lanka and Cambodia were among those killed in the fire, according to the chairman of the company they worked for.
A security official said the fire in Iraq’s relatively stable and violence-free Kurdish region 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.
A source at the city’s emergency hospital said the death toll was 40, with another 23 people injured.
Women and children were among the casualties.
"This is not a terrorist act. Most probably it was due to an electrical fault," said Qader Hama-Jan, the head of local security operations.
Iraq’s minority Kurds were oppressed by Sunni dictator Saddam Hussein but have enjoyed virtual independence under Western protection since the end of the first Gulf War.
As the rest of Iraq descended into sectarian warfare and a raging insurgency after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, Iraqi Kurdistan’s relative stability has drawn foreign investors, principally from Turkey and the Middle East.