BAGHDAD, Jan. 4 (Xinhua) -- Six homeless women died and four others wounded Friday when a fire erupted after a riot at a rehabilitation center in the Iraqi capital Baghdad, an Interior Ministry source said.
The incident occurred after a sit-in protest demanding better services, as riot followed and fire erupted on the second floor of the two-storey building, the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.
Al-Zuhour House, located in Baghdad's northern district of Adhamiyah, is a center used to rehabilitate under-18 orphan and homeless women who were collected by the government from streets, the source said.
Fire engines rushed to the scene to put out the flames, while the security forces sealed off the area to secure the scene.
A source from the Iraqi Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs, which owns the center, told Xinhua that the ministry, in cooperation with the security forces, set up a joint investigation committee to find out the causes and motives of the sit-in, the reasons behind the fire and how the six women died.
