(BBC News) At least 59 people have been killed and more than 155 injured in a nightclub fire in North Macedonia, officials say.
The blaze broke out around 02:30 (01:30 GMT) at the Pulse club in Kocani, a town around 100 km east of the capital Skopje, where 500 people were thought to be attending a concert by DNK, a popular hip-hop duo in the country.
Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski called it a “difficult and very sad day” for the country, which had lost many “young lives”.
Police have blocked access to the nightclub as investigations are under way. In an update on Saturday afternoon, Interior Minister Pance Toskovski said the club did not have a legal license to operate.
Authorities are investigating allegations of corruption and bribery linked to the fire, Toskovski told reporters.
More than 20 of the injured and three of those killed were aged under 18, the minister said.
Earlier estimates put the number of attendees at 1,500, but officials have since revised that figure down.
The venue has been described as an “improvised nightclub” in the local press, having previously been a carpet warehouse.
When the fire occurred, it had been staging a concert for DNK – a band formed in 2002 – which has topped the North Macedonian charts over the past decade.
Citing initial reports, Toskovski said the fire had been started by sparks from pyrotechnic devices that had hit the ceiling, which was made of highly flammable material.
Footage shows the band playing on stage when two flares go off, after which sparks then catch fire on the ceiling before spreading rapidly.
Video verified by the BBC shows people trying to extinguish the flames on the ceiling. The footage shows the club was still full and some people appeared to be watching efforts to put out the fire rather than leaving.
Reports suggest there was only a single entry and exit point to the club, which caused panic.
Toskovski said in an earlier update that 35 of the deceased had been identified at the time.
Kocani’s hospital director said earlier that staff had been struggling to identify patients due to a lack of ID cards.
She said that those deceased were aged between 14 and 24. Eighteen patients are said to be in critical condition.
The government has declared seven days of national mourning, and the government is holding an emergency session as part of ongoing investigations on how the incident unfolded.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c70wdedp20wo