By Fatos Bytyci and Aleksandar Vasovic
(Reuters) -Fire ripped through a packed nightclub early on Sunday in the North Macedonian town of Kocani, killing 59 people and injuring more than 100, after sparks ignited the roof over a live band.
Arrest warrants have been issued for four people in connection with the fire, said interior minister Pance Toskovski. State news agency Mia said that police have detained the owner of the club over the incident.
One video from the event, verified by Reuters, showed a band playing on stage flanked by two flares, the white sparks of which set the ceiling alight.
Friends and family were separated in a panicked rush to the exits.
“Everyone was trying to save themselves,” survivor Marija Taseva, 22, told local TV 5.
As she tried to escape, Taseva fell to the ground and people trod over her, leaving her with an injury on her cheek. In the rush, she lost contact with her sister, who is still missing.
“We can’t find her in any hospital,” she said.
Interior Minister Pance Toskovski confirmed that the fire, which began at around 3 a.m. (0200 GMT), was caused by “pyrotechnic devices” whose sparks triggered the blaze.
About 148 people were hospitalised in Skopje, Kocani and surrounding towns, Health Minister Arben Taravari said at a press conference. Eighteen people were critically injured, Taravari said.
North Macedonia’s MRT public broadcaster reported that 27 people were hospitalized at the Skopje City Hospital with severe burns, and another 23 were being treated at the Clinical Center. Among the injured were minors, it said.
People searched for missing loved ones online and at hospitals across the country on Sunday.
Simeon Sokolov, 50, found his daughter Anastasija at the emergency ward of the September 8 hospital in the capital Skopje, where she was being treated for burns and smoke inhalation.
“I just know that there are many children who have suffered,” he told Reuters. “Doctors are doing their job and the number is big.”
Some patients were flown to neighbouring Bulgaria, Serbia and Greece for treatment, authorities from those countries said.
INVESTIGATION
North Macedonia’s Public Prosecutor Ljupco Kocevski said five prosecutors would investigate the incident.
“At the moment, orders have been issued for collecting of evidence” and some people were being interviewed, Kocevski said, without elaborating.
Firefighters doused the charred and smoking entrance to the “Pulse” nightclub before dawn as ambulances rushed from the scene, TV footage from a local broadcaster showed.
Reuters pictures showed the club’s corrugated iron roof burned through and collapsed in places, its interior wooden beams exposed and blackened.
North Macedonia Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski said on Facebook: “This is a difficult and very sad day for Macedonia! The loss of so many young lives is irreparable, the pain of the families, loved ones and friends is immeasurable.”
After visiting the injured in a hospital in Skopje, North Macedonia’s President Gordana Siljanovska Davkova, dressed in black and fighting tears, said authorities were ready to do everything to help all affected.
“I simply cannot comprehend this … what a disaster, what a tragedy.”
(Reporting by Aleksandar Vasovic, Fatos Bytyci and Lefteris Papadimas; Writing by Edward McAllister; Editing by Bernadette Baum)
