Romanian prosecutors questioned on Monday the three owners of the Colectiv nightclub in Bucharest over a fire that has killed 30 people and left injured at least 180 others, AP reported. Sorin Bogdan, a local journalist, stated to BBC that the club was converted from a former factory with just two small exit doors, with only one door having the ability to be opened.
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“What we are trying to explain to the public opinion in Romania is that this club never requested an authorisation and never declared what they wanted to do there”.
The trio – named as Costin Mincu, Alin George Anastasescu and Paul Gancea – are accused of allowing the club to be overcrowded and of not taking sufficient steps to ensure it had enough emergency exits.
The club burned down quickly on Friday night when fireworks used indoors lit a pillar covered in non-fireproofed insulation foam, then spread to the ceiling, triggering a stampede and trapping numerous roughly 400 people inside.
Today, Romanians arrived in their hundreds at the club, laying flowers and lighting candles for the victims, many of them young. “Starting today I can no longer risk lives”, Andrei Sosa said on Facebook. “Weekend after weekend and sometimes during the week”, he said.
In Iasi, northeastern Romania, La Baza club apologised for not meeting minimum safety requirements.
“We consider we have been ignorant and irresponsible”.
Rockstadt, the biggest venue for rock music in the central city of Brasov, said in a statement on its Facebook page it will close for 10 days to replace foam similar to that which caught alight in the Colectiv club, install sprinklers and bring the club up to European standards.
The Israeli medics are working at the Bagdasar-Arseni, an emergency hospital, according to the Mail. Seven patients at the hospital were in a critical condition, he added.
On Saturday, the government announced a three-day national mourning in remembrance of the fire victims, stipulating that Romanian flags would be half-staffed. He said a few cases need frequent operations and their wounds need to be cared for.
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“I visited burns patients from last night’s tragedy”, he said.
