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, the capital of the Wasit province in eastern Iraq.

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

Reuters' footage of the aftermath of the overnight fire showed the blackened exterior of "Corniche Hypermarket" building.