Isis Baghdad bombing: Young man who danced in city's parks named as one of the 292 victims of terrorist attack

When Iraqi police told Adel Euro to stop dancing, he told them it's 'not dancing, it’s a kind of martial arts'

A young man who dreamed of leaving Iraq to "go to a place where people love dancing" was just of those killed in one of Isis's most deadly attacks on Sunday.

Adel Euro taught himself to dance in secret in his living room by watching DVDs of Michael Jackson.

“Now I can do almost every move he does," Euro said in an interview in 2015, "even the moonwalk, it’s very easy".

The attack on Wednesday killed 292 and a further 200 were injured. It is the most deadly explosion to hit Baghdad since 2003.

Mr Euro started dancing in parks in Baghdad, a risky activity in an extremely conservative country.

"What I am doing could be dangerous in Iraq," Mr Euro told the BBC, "this is not our culture".

Once, the police confronted him: "They said that what I’m doing is a shame and shouldn’t be done in public, this is only what women do," he said.

“I told them that what I’m doing is not dancing, it’s a kind of martial arts.”

After posting videos online of himself dancing, he was spotted by an American dance company, who started mentoring him over Skype.

Jonathan Hollander, artistic director of the Battery Dance Company, said Mr Euro was "very articulate".

"He just had creativity coming out of every part of his body," he told WNYC.

The dance company took Euro to Jordan to perform publicly for the first time.

"My dream came true," Euro told the BBC at the time. "It was a beautiful feeling, because I was among people who loved [to dance]

“One day I’m going to leave Iraq and go to a place where people love dancing."

A vehicle packed with explosives detonated in Baghdad on Sunday just after midnight local time.

The area was densely populated ahead of celebrations marking the end of Ramadan. Many of the remains have to be DNA tested because they are beyond recognition.