The victims were mostly Kurds younger than 14 years old. The cinema hall had a capacity of about 200 people, but about 500 children were watching the film at the time of fire. The exits to the cinema had been padlocked and all of the cinema staff had left the building before the fire started. Authorities also prevented onlookers from attempting to save the children, claiming that it was too "dangerous". The children of regime officials did not attend the film. Two Syrian soldiers were stationed at the cinema's entrance. The cinema had four doors, none which were able to be opened during the fire. The
film stock, which was old and worn out, caught fire and the flames spread to the wooden roof of the cinema hall. Many of the victims died of suffocation after a cinema door closed into them. Some of the victims decided to jump off a balcony, but did not realize that the balcony was directly above an open well. A wooden beam fell onto and killed a man named Mohammed Said Agha Daqqouri, who saved 12 children from the fire before his death. == Aftermath ==