Twenty-seven people have been killed and 155 injured after a fire and explosion in a Bucharest nightclub during a rock concert that featured fireworks, Romanian government officials and witnesses said, in one of the capital’s worst incidents in decades.
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The agency attributes the fire to “pyrotechnic effects” during a live performance of the band Goodbye to Gravity. The station reported that people panicked and rushed for the exit.
Al Jazeera quotes a Romanian journalist as saying “many of the people involved weere foreigners who did not speak Romanian”.
“In five seconds the whole ceiling was all on fire”.
A few victims left the scene with severe burns, while others were being resuscitated on the street outside the venue, according to Romanian media reports.
The victims were admitted to 10 hospitals in Bucharest, said Deputy Interior Minister Raed Arafat. However, numerous victims are yet to be identified.
Interior Minister Gabriel Oprea said 26 people had died so far, raising an earlier toll of 25, while his secretary of state said 154 people had been injured.
“People were fainting, they were fainting from the smoke”.
Another added: “People were fainting, they were fainting from the smoke. It was total chaos, people were trampling on each other”, he said.
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Prime Minister Victor Ponta is cutting short a visit to Mexico and flying home in light of the tragedy.
