Officials: Gas tank explosion in northern Iraq kills 6

BAGHDAD — 

A heating gas tank exploded in a residential complex in northern Iraq on Thursday, killing six people, Iraqi Kurdish officials said.

The explosion in the city of Sulimaniyah destroyed three homes and also injured 16 people. An unknown number were trapped under the rubble, reports said.

Authorities said the explosion was caused by a liquid gas tank. Civil defense teams were combing through the rubble in search of survivors.

The provincial governor, Haval Abu Bakrin, said that a child was among the victims, the official Iraqi News Agency reported.

Masrour Barzani, prime minister of the semi-autonomous Kurdish-controlled region in northern Iraq, ordered an investigation.