Iraq’s health ministry said that ambulances and specialized medical teams are being deployed to Nineveh to help evacuate many of those injured in the fire.A ministry spokesman told Al Jazeera that a large number of those injured are in “unstable condition”, and that the critically injured were referred to specialised hospitals that can handle burning victims.

Sources from Nineveh Governorate told Al Jazeera correspondent Esther Hakim that some of the victims died of suffocation, while many wedding guests were trying to leave through the banquet hall’s main entrance, causing a crush.The sources said that the hall also did not have the proper equipment to put out the fire, which allowed it to spread quickly.

Hakim also reported that civil defence teams have recovered all the bodies left in the building, noting that the injured were transferred to hospitals in Nineveh and the Kurdistan Regional Government province.