At least 61 people have been killed and several more are missing in a huge fire at a hypermarket in Kut city in eastern Iraq, according to officials.

An overnight fire at a shopping mall in Iraq has killed more than 60 people, according to the country's interior ministry. The massive fire broke out early Thursday in the new, five-story shopping center in Kut,

Local officials blamed shoddy construction and a lack of preparedness for the scale of the tragedy at the newly opened building.