North Macedonia nightclub fire kills 51

WASHINGTON DC, US: A fire tore through a nightclub in North Macedonia early Sunday, killing 51 people, apparently after on-stage fireworks set the place ablaze, the country’s interior minister said.

More than 100 people were wounded in the fire in the “Club Pulse” in the eastern town of Kocani, Interior Minister Pance Toskovski said.

The establishment had been packed with more than 1,000 mostly young fans to see a popular hip-hop duo called DNK.

Toskovski said the fire was probably caused by the use of pyrotechnic devices “used for light effect at the concert”.

As they were set off, “the sparks caught the ceiling, which was made of easily flammable material, after which the fire rapidly spread across the whole discotheque, creating thick smoke,” he said.

Toskovski visited the site of the tragedy early Sunday with the Balkan country’s prime minister, Hristijan Mickoski.

Helicopters ferried some of the injured to hospitals in the capital Skopje.

Twenty-seven of them were admitted to the Naum Ohridski clinic, a doctor at the facility, Nebojsa Nastov, told online media outlet SDK.

SDK reported that the fire started at 3 am (0200 GMT).

Videos posted on social networks and shot before the fire showed the use of “stage fountains”, sometimes also called “stage jets”, which are a type of indoor fireworks used during performances.

Other videos published by media in the Balkan country showed the entrance to the building blackened by flames.

“According to the data we have by now, 51 people lost their lives,” Toskovski said after visiting the scene.

“More than 100 persons are injured,” Toskovski said, adding that the wounded had been transported to the local hospital as well as to the capital Skopje and to the town of Stip some 30 kilometres (20 miles) to the south.

In September 2021, a major fire killed 14 people at a unit for Covid-19 patients in the northwestern town of Tetovo.

-ANI