Blaze at Packed Tehran Mosque Kills at Least 59

A fire raged through a crowded mosque Monday, killing at least 59 people, after the flames of a kerosene heater caught a woman’s veil and spread to cloth on the ceilings and walls, Iran’s official Islamic Republic News Agency reported.

Panicked people raced for the exits and smashed windows to escape, leaving burned shoes and women’s black chadors scattered in the yard. More than 250 people were injured.

The Arg Mosque in central Tehran was filled with about 400 worshipers, more than usual because of the Islamic month of Muharram, a holy period for Shiite Muslims, and heaters were being used because of unusually severe winter weather.

Women, who pray on the second floor of the mosque, separate from the men, had to race downstairs and through a narrow doorway to get out. Many stumbled and were trampled.

Hospital records showed that 40 of the dead and the majority of the injured were women.

Tehran Police Chief Brig. Gen. Morteza Talaie said, “The main cause of the fatal incident is ignoring the basic safety rules, including installation of a kerosene heater very close to a thick curtain.”

The walls and ceiling were covered in a thick green cloth for the holy month, the news agency said.

“Pieces of burning cloth fell on the heads of the worshipers, who stopped praying and smashed windows to run out of the mosque in panic,” one witness said.