Holding hands, the beaming couple were unable to hold back their smiles on what should have been the happiest day of their lives. 

But unbeknownst to newlyweds Haneen and Revan, this was to be their final picture together before a raging inferno swept through their Christian wedding in Iraq today.

The young couple are feared to have been killed along with at least 110 of their wedding guests after the blaze, believed to have been started by fireworks, tore through the large hall in the northern town of Qaraqosh near Mosul.

Those who survived the inferno have described it as ‘hell’ with children as young as eight months old and entire families – including a couple and their three-year-old child – among the dead.

‘This was not a wedding. This was hell,’ said Mariam Khedr, crying and hitting herself as she waited for officials to return the bodies of her daughter Rana Yakoub, 27, and three young grandchildren – the youngest being eight months old. 

Video purportedly shows the newlyweds slow-dancing in the hall moments before the blaze tore through the large hall in the Christian town, which had survived ISIS occupation. 

Hanneen, wearing a large white wedding dress, turns around in horror to see flames rapidly climbing the walls before burning material falls from the roof. 

Chaos ensues, with the up to 900 panicked guests rushing towards the exits as the hall is engulfed in flames and filled with toxic smoke in seconds. Survivors said many were left trapped in the burning building as they couldn’t see through the black smoke. 

The bride and groom were among the more than 100 people killed in the deadly blaze according to health officials, while 150 more are injured – 50 critically. But there are conflicting reports about their wellbeing, with some others saying the couple were injured rather than killed in the blaze. 

Nineveh province Deputy Governor Hassan al-Allaf said 113 people had been confirmed dead whilst the head of the province’s Red Crescent branch said the death toll was not final but that it ‘exceeds hundreds injured and dozens killed’. 

‘I lost my daughter, her husband and their 3 year-old. They were all burned. My heart is burning,’ a woman said outside the morgue, where bodies lay outside in bags as vehicles came to collect those that had been identified. 

A man called Youssef stood nearby with burns covering his hands and face. He said he had not been able to see anything when the fire began and the power cut out. He had grabbed his 3 year-old grandson and managed to get out.

But his wife, Bashra Mansour, in her 50s, did not make it. She fell in the chaos and died.

Hundreds of wedding guests, many of them children, were rushed to hospital with severe burns across their bodies, with many fighting for their lives. 

Wedding guest Rania Waad, who sustained a burn to her hand, said that as Haneen and Revan ‘were slow dancing, the fireworks started to climb to the ceiling and the whole hall went up in flames’. 

‘We couldn’t see anything,’ the 17-year-old said, choking back sobs. ‘We were suffocating, we didn’t know how to get out.’ 

Other wedding guests also said that the blaze was caused by fireworks, which had been set off during the first dance.

A man injured in the fire, speaking from his hospital bed, said: ‘They lit up fireworks. It hit the ceiling, which caught fire. The entire hall was on fire in seconds.’ 

Witnesses said the wedding hall caught fire at around 10.45pm local time (8.45pm UK time) during the couple’s first dance. 

Video shows wedding guests dancing together before the newlyweds walked onto the dance floor. 

Harrowing footage shows Haneen resting her head against Revan while he holds her waist as they share their first dance. But within minutes, the wedding turned into a nightmare as the blaze broke out, sending shards of burning material to the ground around them. 

Panicked guests began running out of the burning building, but over 100 were trapped inside and died of burns and smoke inhalation. 

‘We saw the fire pulsating, coming out of the hall. Those who managed got out and those who didn’t got stuck,’ said Imad Yohana, a 34-year-old who escaped the inferno.

Chaotic scenes were seen outside the building, with screaming guests crying for help from medics who had quickly arrived on the scene. 

Injured wedding guests were later seen lying in hospital beds with bandages covering the burns they sustained in the horrific blaze. 

Ahmed Dubardani, a health official in the province, said: ‘The majority of them were completely burned and some others had 50 to 60 per cent of their bodies burned. 

‘This is not good at all. The majority of them were not in good condition.’

In the blaze’s aftermath, only charred metal and debris could be seen as emergency crews sifted through the scene of utter devastation. 

While there is no official word on the cause of the blaze, footage showed fireworks shooting up from the floor of the event and setting a chandelier aflame, which echoes the testimony of injured wedding guests. 

This was made worse by the wedding hall’s exterior being decorated with ‘highly flammable’ cladding that is illegal in Iraq, civil defence officials quoted by the Iraqi News Agency said.

The danger was compounded by the ‘release of toxic gases linked to the combustion of the panels’, which contained plastic, they said. 

‘The fire caused some parts of the ceiling to fall due to the use of highly flammable, low-cost construction materials,’ the civil defence authorities said, with ‘preliminary information’ suggesting fireworks were to blame for the blaze. 

The Interior Ministry said it had issued four arrest warrants for the owners of the wedding hall, state media reported, and President Abdul Latif Rashid called for an investigation. 

Three people who attended the wedding said the hall appeared poorly equipped for the disaster with no visible fire extinguishers, few exits, and draped in flammable material that one said lit ‘like petrol’. Fire fighters arrived 30 minutes after the blaze began, they said.

Most residents of Qaraqosh, which is mostly Christian but also home to some members of Iraq’s Yazidi minority, fled the town when Islamic State seized it in 2014. But they returned after the group was ousted in 2017.

At Mar Youhanna church, where the wedding service took place before the evening party, deacon Hani al-Kasmousa said prayers for the dead would take place at the cemetery because there was not enough room in the church for so many mourners.

‘Yesterday there was a wedding and happiness. Now we are preparing their burial,’ he said, new coffins stacked along an alleyway near his church.

Father Rudi Saffar Khoury, a priest at the wedding, said it was unclear who was to blame for the fire.

‘It could be a mistake by the event organisers or venue hosts, or maybe a technical error,’ Khoury said. ‘It was a disaster in every sense of the word.’

Najim al-Jubouri, the provincial governor of Nineveh, said some of the injured had been transferred to regional hospitals. He cautioned there were no final casualty figures yet from the blaze, which suggests the death toll still may rise. 

Anger is simmering in the area after it emerged that the exterior of the wedding hall had been covered in the illegal cladding. 

It wasn’t immediately clear why authorities in Iraq allowed the cladding to be used on the hall, though corruption and mismanagement remains endemic two decades after the U.S.-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein.

While some types of cladding can be made with fire-resistant material, experts say those that have caught fire at the wedding hall and elsewhere weren’t designed to meet stricter safety standards and often were put onto buildings without any breaks to slow or halt a possible blaze. 

That includes the 2017 Grenfell Fire in London that killed 72 people in the greatest loss of life in a fire on British soil since World War II, as well as multiple high-rise fires in the United Arab Emirates.

Safety standards in Iraq’s construction sector are often disregarded, and the country, whose infrastructure is in disrepair after decades of conflict, is often the scene of fatal fires and accidents.

In July 2021, a fire in the Covid unit of a hospital in southern Iraq killed more than 60 people.

And in April of the same year, exploding oxygen tanks triggered a fire at a hospital in Baghdad – also dedicated to Covid patients – that killed more than 80 people.

Like many Christian towns in the Nineveh Plains, northeast of Mosul, Qaraqosh was ransacked by jihadists of the Islamic State group in 2014.

Qaraqosh and its churches were slowly rebuilt after the group was ousted in 2017, and Pope Francis visited the town in March 2021.

Family and friends say heartbreaking farewell to father and son who died while clutching each other as Sandy floodwaters rushed into their home

• Father and son were covered in 12ft of water within seconds of Sandy’s strike
• Son refused to leave his dad’s side despite being warned to evacuate
• Deaths in Staten Island now up to 19 after the superstorm
• Brother of the father was a fireman during 9/11 but said ‘nothing compares’ to this family loss

By Daniel Bates

Published: 22:39 EDT, 5 November 2012 | Updated: 11:12 EDT, 6 November 2012

A tragic father and son who died side-by-side as the fierce floodwaters of Superstorm Sandy rushed into their home were buried together on Monday in an emotional funeral.

John Filipowicz, of Staten Island, and his son – also named John – were found clinging to each other in their basement as they shielded themselves from a  torrent which covered them in 12ft of water in seconds.

John Jr, 20, was found drowned in his father’s arms after telling relatives that he would not leave his father.

Scroll down for video

A service was held for the father and son on Monday at Staten Island’s St Charles Church.

It was attended by dozens of mourners, including John Sr’s wife Christine and their surviving children Joseph – John Jr’s twin brother – and 16-year-old Cali.

DNAInfo reported that the two men were big fans of the New York Jets, and were buried in the jerseys of their favorite players – Joe Klecko for John Sr and Dustin Keller for John Jr.

Relatives said that the two had an ‘incredible bond’ and would never have been separated – in life or in death.

John Sr, 51, stayed behind to watch over the house, but his son refused to leave his side.

Among the mourners were John Sr’s wife Christine, and his two surviving children, Joseph, John Jr’s twin and 16-year-old Cali.

The deaths were among the 19 fatalities on Staten Island due to Superstorm Sandy, more than any other borough in New York. The total U.S. death toll currently stands at 110.

Among the other victims were Connor and Brandon Moore, aged four and two, who were swept out of their mother’s arms by a giant wave on the east coast of Staten Island.

The Filipowicz family lived on Fox Beach Avenue, which was among the hardest hit streets on the island.

Neil Filipowicz, 46, John Sr’s brother, told MailOnline that his brother decided to ignore warnings to evacuate after Hurricane Irene last year and a 1992 storm.

He said: ‘I spoke to Joseph and he said that that day he tried to get him to leave. He was on the phone and was telling John [Jr] to leave the house. He told him: ‘I’m not leaving Daddy.’

‘There was no way he was going to leave his dad at home. It was a bond how it’s supposed to be with your kids, between a son and a father. They loved each other so much. They had an incredible bond.’

Neil, a retired New York City firefighter who served on 9/11, said the family became concerned when they were unable to reach either father or son during Monday night’s storm.

Neil went to their house the next day at 7.30am, had a look round the house and noticed his brother’s keys and wallet were on the table but there was no sign of them.

Neil, Christine and other relatives then went round local hostels and when they found nothing, Neil went back to the house on his own.

Neil said: ‘I crawled through a hole in the wall that the water had made. I shone my flashlight from right to left and then I saw a hand, to my left.

‘I was praying it was a doll’s hand but I reached in the water and grabbed it and my nephew came up.

‘My brother came up too, he had his arm round the back of his head, shielding him.

‘I was pulling both of them at the same time, by their shirts and a neighbour came and helped me remove them and we put them on the side of the house until they were moved by the National Guard and the Medical Examiner.

‘My nephew was holding my brother and my brother was clutching him into his chest as if they knew they were dying.

‘My brother was protecting him. Their eyes were open. My brother looked intense, like he was still trying to fight the end and be the father and protect his son. My nephew was so scared.

‘The water line on this was 10ft up but I’m thinking it must have been much higher.’

Neil said that the two men were in the basement because they were checking on things.’

He added said: ‘I know my brother had some sandbags outside, he had used some expandable foam on the back door. No water got through it.

‘All the foam had to be cut out, he probably was checking on it and maybe he heard a crack in the structure, but once that gave way, the rush of the water, that pressure.

‘Some of the cinderblocks are over the other side of the basement. To be pushed like that, they shot like [a] cannon.’

Fighting back the tears, Neil said that he had been on duty as a New York City fireman on 9/11 but that ‘nothing compares to this because of the closeness.’

Neighbours knew John the elder as the ‘mayor’ of the street because he looked after them all by helping clean the snow out of the street in winter.

They in turn referred to him by the family nickname, ‘Flip’. Paying tribute to his brother, Neil said: ‘My brother was all about family. Even our friends were considered family, it was like an extended family.

‘He was United States Marine out of High School. He served in Greneda then he worked in the New York City Corrections Department and from there he retired and worked for the Concrete Labourers Union for a while.

‘He was a big family man, loved his wife and kids immensely. For the last few years he drove a bus for school kids.

‘He was football coach, a basketball coach. He was school baseball coach as well and was a church going man, he was a regular at St Charles Catholic church.’

Neil described John Jr as a ‘prince’ who did ‘anything for anyone.’

He said: ‘He was the heir to who is father was. He did everything right. He was never in trouble, he did everything right. He was devoted to his girlfriend. He went to college and took the Fire Department test, he was trying to better himself and thinking about becoming a nurse.’

VIDEO: Father and son laid to rest side by side

Eight-year-old girl who died ‘after being tortured by her father was forced to eat her own faeces when his mistress locked her in toilet’

• Father and mistress charged with with torturing and imprisoning the girl and her sister
• Mistress admits to using hot irons to punish girls for being ‘disobedient’
  
• Couple used metal bars and wires to systematically torture two daughters
• Police found stun guns and sticks in the flat where the children were abandoned

By Tahira Yaqoob

Published: 14:57 EDT, 7 November 2012 | Updated: 15:30 EDT, 7 November 2012

An eight-year-old girl who died after being tortured with stun guns and hot irons was forced to eat her own faeces after her father and his mistress left her to starve in a locked toilet, a Dubai court heard.

Wadeema al Sherawi had been deprived of food and was locked up as punishment for being ‘naughty’ on the night she died – and in desperation, she ate her own waste before vomiting as a result.

Her father Hamad Saoud al Sherawi, 29, and his mistress Al Anood al Ameri, 27, have been charged with torturing and imprisoning Wadeema and her seven-year-old sister Mira, killing Wadeema and burying her illegally.

The Emirati couple are said to have beaten the girls with electrical wires and metal bars, poured boiling water on them and burned them with hot irons and cigarettes.

A policeman told Dubai Court of First Instance that Wadeema and Mira – who survived the abuse but was left with a permanent disability – were often left unfed and sometimes ate their own faeces.

Emirati police officer Essam Obaid, 35, told the court: ‘The girl and her younger sister were left unfed in the flat.

‘On the night [Wadeema] died, she vomited a lot because she ate her own faeces.

‘She and her sister used to eat mouldy food and sometimes their own faeces.’ 

A second witness in the trial, police corporal Mubarak Ahmed Taleb, 34, said the studio apartment where the couple lived with the two girls was filthy and ‘not fit for humans to live in’.

He told the court it reeked of stale urine: ‘It smelled really bad and was dirty. There was only one bed and the furniture was turned upside down. The girls’ clothes stank and there was mess everywhere.

‘The fridge was full of food which was out of date. No one could live in it.’

He said when his investigation team searched the flat, they found two irons with brown marks on them and said: ‘They had used them to burn the girls.’

He added they found some of the implements of torture, including metal bars, sticks and stun guns.

Al Sherawi and Al Ameri, who have just had a baby boy called Saoud while being held separately in captivity, stood in court while judge Maher Salameh heard the case against them.

Al Ameri clutched her sleeping newborn baby to her chest wrapped in a blue checked blanket.

The pair were arrested after the girls’ uncle visited the flat in International City, Dubai, and was told by Mira of the abuse.

He initially blamed both of them for Wadeema’s death but later changed his story, saying Al Sherawi was ‘a great father who loved his children’.

Al Sherawi has denied all the charges and only admits burying Wadeema in the desert while his mistress has pleaded guilty to all the allegations.

Mr Obaid said today: ‘When I questioned Al Anood, she claimed she saw Wadeema vomiting heavily and was very sick that evening so she called Hamad and asked him to come to the flat.

‘They left her until 5am in the toilet and when they went to check on her, she was dead. She vomited because she ate her own excrement.

‘Al Anood admitted heating the irons and torturing the girls. She said Wadeema was tortured because she did not listen and was disobedient.’

The judge said: ‘Was there no other way she could teach her children?’

Mr Obaid said Al Anood told him they had washed and dressed Wadeema before burying her in the desert.

He said he had not interviewed Mira. The little girl gave evidence in court yesterday but after Al Sherawi, who was clean-shaven for the first time in the trial, refused to carry on with proceedings unless reporters were banned, the trial was heard in chambers.

Wadeema’s body was found in June but was so badly decomposed, forensic experts could not tell how she had died.

The girls’ natural mother Salma Obaid had to give them up in November 2011 after losing custody and had not seen them for six months when Wadeema died.

She married Al Sherawi in 2002 and divorced him in 2006. She previously told the court she tried to convince him to let her see the girls but was forbidden contact with them.

A forensics expert said Mira had been lucky not to die from her injuries. The case was adjourned until November 25.

 

Man, 43, arrested in hunt for Michigan sniper who fired at random cars in four counties in two-week campaign of terror

• Suspect arrested in Wixom, the Detroit suburb where shootings began
• Targets in 24 incidents were mostly cars on roads near Interstate 96
  

By Graham Smith for MailOnline

Published: 12:31 EDT, 7 November 2012 | Updated: 15:47 EDT, 7 November 2012

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A man has been arrested on suspicion of being the sniper who shot at random cars in four Michigan counties in two weeks.

The 43-year-old suspect was taken into custody on Monday night in Wixom, the Detroit suburb where the shootings began.

Ingham County Sheriff Gene Wriggelsworth called the attacks, which wounded one person, ‘domestic terrorism’.

He said: ‘Why did he do it? I don’t know. I don’t know if we’ll ever know.’

Janice Schumacher, 43, was pumping gas in Wixom when she heard that a suspect was in custody.

‘I hope this is the guy,’ said the Commerce Township resident who for the past several weeks has been using alternate routes to run personal errands and shuttle her three children to and from school

‘For weeks, I haven’t been able to breathe while driving with my kids in the car. If they finally got this guy, that would be a major relief.’

Before the arrest, clues appeared to be few – slugs and bullet fragments embedded in cars, metal casings on roadways, a simple black-and-white sketch of the shooter – a man believed to be in his late 20s or early 30s – and vague descriptions of the dark car he drove.

The crime scene where the shootings took place is 100 miles long and slices through suburbia, shopping malls and farm pastures.

Shootings have occurred during the day, at night, on weekdays and on weekends. Police say the shooter would drive along roadways and fire at vehicles traveling in the opposite direction. Only one person was wounded.

Initial reports of shootings stirred panic. Wixom schools restricted recess and other activities that would take students outdoors. Drivers avoided main thoroughfares where they might be exposed and stuck to side streets.

But police have been working hard to maintain calm. In Wixom – where ten shootings have been reported – police had special Halloween patrols to protect trick-or-treaters.

From Oakland County, northwest of Detroit, to Shiawassee County, northeast of Lansing, authorities stopped cars resembling the shooter’s vehicle. A $102,000 reward was offered.

‘I’ve always felt safe here. But this has been very shocking,’ said Karen Adams, 51, who lives one street away from the suspect.

Is this the Michigan Sniper? Far-right activist who bragged about carrying a gun every day is arrested for shooting at TWO DOZEN cars

• Suspect arrested in Wixom, the Detroit suburb where shootings began
• Targets in 24 incidents were mostly cars on roads near Interstate 96
  

By Graham Smith for MailOnline and Michael Zennie

Published: 18:39 EDT, 7 November 2012 | Updated: 19:10 EDT, 7 November 2012

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The man accused of terrifying suburban Detroit, Michigan, for two weeks by shooting at two dozen cars on the highway ranted about far-right-wing politics for months before the attacks.

Raulie Wayne Casteel, 43, bragged on his Twitter feed about carrying a handgun everyday and said President Obama should be arrested by the military and ‘marched out of the White House in handcuffs.’

Police arrested him Sunday night at his home in Wixom, Michigan, near the epicenter of the seemingly random shootings.

His mother, who lives in Florida, has she her son is mentally ill and that she had tried and failed to get him help, but she never believed he would resort to violence.

Ingham County Sheriff Gene Wriggelsworth called the attacks, which wounded one person, ‘domestic terrorism’.

He said: ‘Why did he do it? I don’t know. I don’t know if we’ll ever know.’

Sheriff Wriggelsworth said a tip – one of close to 3,000 that have come in – led authorities to the man’s home. He declined to disclose what the suspect told investigators.

The shootings began on October 16 and stretched from Oakland County west to Ingham County.

The targets in the 24 reported incidents were mostly cars traveling on roads near Interstate 96. Only a handful of shootings actually occurred on the interstate.

The crime scene where the shootings took place is 100 miles long and slices through suburbia, shopping malls and farm pastures.

Shootings have occurred during the day, at night, on weekdays and on weekends. Police say the shooter would drive along roadways and fire at vehicles traveling in the opposite direction. Only one person was wounded.

Scott Arnold, 46, from Kalamazoo, shot in the buttocks as he drove along eastbound I-96 on October 27, heading to a World Series game in Detroit. He was rushed to the hospital, but did not suffer a life-threatening wound.

Initial reports of shootings stirred panic. Wixom schools restricted recess and other activities that would take students outdoors. Drivers avoided main thoroughfares where they might be exposed and stuck to side streets.

Janice Schumacher, 43, was pumping gas in Wixom when she heard that a suspect was in custody.

‘I hope this is the guy,’ said the Commerce Township resident who for the past several weeks has been using alternate routes to run personal errands and shuttle her three children to and from school.

‘For weeks, I haven’t been able to breathe while driving with my kids in the car. If they finally got this guy, that would be a major relief.’

Before the arrest, clues appeared to be few – slugs and bullet fragments embedded in cars, metal casings on roadways, a simple black-and-white sketch of the shooter and vague descriptions of the dark car he drove.

Michigan State Police Lt Michael Shaw told Mail Online investigators have not been able to determine a motive because Casteel requested a lawyer shortly after his arrested.

However, he said, detectives are looking into a possible connection between the shootings and his political posts on Twitter.

‘It is something we are looking at as a possible part of the investigation we’re not sure whether that has any connection with the case or not, but it is something we’re aware of,’ he said.

Casteel began making frequent posts about politics on his Twitter account in April. He frequently cited conservative pundits, but other more right-wing sources, as well.

He also talked about ‘open carry,’ the practice of carrying a non-concealed handgun.

‘The 2nd Amend is an absolute – absolutely no compromises – I carry everwhere I go!’ he wrote on September 28. 

He also frequently posted about the need to impeach the President.

‘I want the arrest and impeachment of Barack Obamo. I’ve given the military the option of marching him out of the W.H. in handcuffs,’ he wrote October 1.

He also said he had purchased a book called ‘Hostile Takeover: Resisting Centralized Government’s Stranglehold on America’ by Tea Party activist William Morrow.

Lt Shaw said officers seized a 9mm pistol from Casteel’s home. Pistol-caliber bullets were used in the highway shootings, though he could not confirm whether the bullets recovered were fire from Casteel’s gun.

Lana Hunt, 62, who lives in Florida, told the Detroit Free Press that her son is mentally ill.

‘He trusted me, but I could not get him to see a doctor,’ she said.

Looking for someone to hang out with: Parents peg details of their children on a washing line in bid to find them a partner

By Rebecca Seales

Published: 15:07 EDT, 16 November 2012 | Updated: 15:07 EDT, 16 November 2012

Singletons in China are being hung out to dry by their matchmaking parents, who are advertising details about them on a washing-line in a bid to marry them off.

The bizarre dating ritual takes place at People’s Park in Shanghai, where parents peg out information about their grown-up sons and daughters in the hope of finding them an eligible life partner.

The adverts include details such as their child’s age, height, educational background, profession and income.

The typical requirement of a prospective groom is that he be a ‘responsible man with stable income’ or someone ‘who owns an apartment and a car’.

Women, meanwhile, are required to be ‘kind, have a stable job and preferably hold a bachelor’s degree’.

The keen parents then scan the dating adverts and chat to other parents in an attempt to match their son or daughter with a potential spouse.

One parent, Ma Jianhua, 55, who was attempting to find his son a wife, told China Daily: ‘I first came here six months ago after reading about the park’s matchmaking activities in the newspaper.

‘Since then I have been coming here almost every weekend. On days that I can’t make it, my wife steps in for me.

‘My son is too busy to date girls, so I am here on his behalf.

‘Although my son and I have different tastes, I can at least narrow down some of the girls who meet his requirements, by speaking to the girl’s parents. After all, a woman’s manner and character are often influenced by their parents.‘

Ma said his 28-year-old son was looking for a caring girl aged between 24 and 26, with a bachelor’s degree.

He hasn’t had any luck so far, as while he has introduced his son to several girls, none have made the cut.

He said: ‘I will not give up, as a father, I will not feel comfortable if I don’t do something for my son.

‘I know very well that there are all kinds of people here, but it’s a good platform. Nowhere else in the city can you find so many candidates.

‘Besides, I believe matchmaking works. Some of the parents I used to see are no longer here. I think they must have found someone.’

Parents of woman who died when Irish doctors refused to perform abortion meet with Indian government to demand justice

• Savita Halappanavar, 31, was found to be miscarrying when she was admitted to Galway University Hospital
• The dentist, who was 17 weeks pregnant, was denied a medical termination, and died from septicaemia on October 28
• Indian officials have promised parents Anadappa and Akka Mahadevi Yalgi all possible help
• Pro-choice campaigners plan mass rallies in Ireland calling for abortion to be legalised
  

By Rebecca Seales

Published: 14:53 EDT, 16 November 2012 | Updated: 16:49 EDT, 17 November 2012

The parents of an Indian woman who died of blood poisoning after Irish doctors refused her an abortion have met officials to demand justice for their daughter.

Savita Halappanavar, 31, was 17 weeks pregnant when she began miscarrying, and died of septicaemia a week later.

Her husband Praveen Halappanavar, 34, has told how he begged doctors at Galway University Hospital to terminate the pregnancy, but they refused to do so because she was ‘in a Catholic country’ and the foetus’s heartbeat was still present.

The tragedy has provoked soul searching in the Republic of Ireland, where abortion is illegal, as well as considerable anger in some quarters.

Campaigners are demanding a change in the law to allow abortion in the case where the mother’s life is in danger.

Savita’s parents Anadappa Yalgi, 62, and his wife Akka Mahadevi Yalgi, 54, met with municipal government officials late on Friday afternoon at the family home in Belgaum, South West India.

The grieving couple asked Belgaum’s Deputy Commissioner, Anbu Kumar, to help ensure every possible assistance from the Indian government.

Mr Kumar said of the encounter: ‘I visited the house and offered our government’s help where possible.’

A photo of Savita now hangs in the family home covered in a garland, as is traditional in India’s Hindu community after the death of a loved one.

Echoing comments made by her parents, India’s ambassador to Ireland said today that Mrs Halappanavar might still be alive today if she had been treated in India.

Debashish Chakravarti told RTÉ radio that he hoped the Irish government would take steps to ensure the circumstances which led to her death never arose again. 

Abortion is not illegal in India when the mother’s life is at risk, the ambassador noted.

Meanwhile Ireland’s ambassador to India, Feilim McLaughlin, was officially summoned by the Delhi government on Friday to discuss an inquiry into Mrs Halappanavar’s death.

Madhusudan Ganapathi, secretary (west) in the external affairs ministry, told the Irish envoy he hoped the inquiry into the tragedy would be independent.

He also conveyed the sadness felt by people in India as ‘a young life had come to an untimely end’.

India’s External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid said of the tragedy: “Saving the life of the mother is of prime importance, if you can’t save the life of the child.”

Mr Halappanavar, Savita’s husband, has described how he held her hand as she died.

Reliving her final moments, he said: ‘In the night, at around one o’clock, the nurse came running, as I was standing outside ICU.

‘She just told me to be brave, and she took me near Savita, and she said: “Will you be OK to be there, living her last minutes?

‘I said: “Yes, I want to”. I was holding her hand, they were trying to pump her heart, there was a big team around. The doctor just told me they lost her.’

Mr Halappanavar, who works as an engineer at Boston Scientific in Galway, came to Ireland from India with his wife four years ago to start a new life together. She had a job in Westport, Co Mayo and the pair lived in Galway city.

Happy couple: Savita and her husband Praveen dancing at 2010 Diwali festival in Galway, video from YouTube

They were so excited about the expected birth of their first child, which was due on March 20, that they had an early baby shower in recent weeks when Mrs Halappanavar’s parents were visiting.

Pro-choice activists in Ireland have turned to social media networks to organise a mass protest against the country’s abortion laws on Saturday.

A rally in central Dublin is expected to attract several thousand demonstrators, and follows similar rallies on Thursday night in Belfast and on Friday in Derry.