Twenty six people died and 145 were injured in a fire and explosion in a Bucharest, Romania, nightclub during a rock concert that featured fireworks late on Friday, government officials and witnesses said, in one of the capital’s worst incidents in decades.
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A man who escaped without shoes said: ‘There was a stampede of people running out of the club’.
The ministry said there were 60 ambulances and fire engines were sent to the scene and a mobile hospital had been set up outside. A few reports have stated that part of the club’s roof collapsed, further injuring people inside.
The scaffolding fell on people who were inside the club and victims claimed the ceiling collapsed.
In the southern Brazilian college town of Santa Maria in 2013, a musician lit an outdoor flare inside the Kiss nightclub and started a fire that killed at least 241 people, investigators said.
The cause of the fire at the Colectiv club is not yet known. A few of those who had been injured were treated at the scene, while those with severe injuries were rushed to hospitals.
Another 145 have been taken to hospital, Agerpres agency quotes the head of the Interior Ministry’s emergency situations department, Raed Arafat, as saying.
There has been an appeal for blood donations.
Klaus Iohannis, the President of Romania, issued a statement in which he said he was “shocked and deeply saddened” by the night’s events. “It is a very sad for all of us, for our nation and for me personally”.
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He added: “I urge you all to stand by grieving families and give solidarity and compassion”.
