At least 232 people have been killed
in a Brazil nightclub after a fire ravaged through the building in the early
hours of this morning.
Initial reports were that 90 people
perished in the blaze, but the death toll has steadily been rising as more
bodies have been found in the packed nightclub. It appears to be deadliest
nightclub fire for a decade.
While the official cause of the
blaze has not been stated, local reports claim it was sparked by a firework set
off during a band's performance.
It was earlier reported that as many as
245 people had died in the fire but a new count of bodies brought to a nearby
gym has led to an estimated count of 232 people dead.
The exact number of victims is still
unknown and there may be hundreds injured, civil police and regional government
spokesman Marcelo Arigoni told Radio Gaucha.
He told the radio a truck carrying
70 bodies had arrived at the Municipal Sports Centre, which was being used as
an improvised morgue.
Police believe there are about 20
bodies still inside the club.
Video footage taken during the rescue shows dramatic scenes of local people trying to smash through an outer wall of the club to rescue people.
Sandro Meinerz, spokesman for the
police in the city of Santa Maria, 550km from Porto Alegre, southern Brazil,
told local media that the fire broke out at the Kiss club while a band was
performing.
The cause of the fire is not yet
known, however, some media reports claim the blaze was ignited by a firework
set off inside the club during the band's performance.
Witnesses said that a flare or
firework lit by band members may have started the fire.
Television images showed smoke
pouring out of the Kiss nightclub as shirtless, young male partygoers joined
firefighters in wielding axes and sledgehammers, pounding at windows and walls
to break through to those trapped inside.
Teenagers sprinted from the scene
desperately trying to find help - others carried injured and burned friends
away in their arms.
'There was so much smoke and fire,
it was complete panic and it took a long time for people to get out, there were
so many dead,' survivor Luana Santos Silva told the Globo TV network.
Silva added that firefighters and
ambulances responded quickly after the fire broke out, but that it spread too
fast inside the packed club for them to help.
Michele Pereira, another survivor, told the Folha de S. Paulo newspaper that she was near the stage and that the fire broke out after band members lit flares.
'The band that was on stage began to
use flares and, suddenly, they stopped the show and pointed them upward. At
that point the ceiling caught fire. It was really weak but in a matter of
seconds it spread,' Pereira said.
Civil Police and regional government
spokesman Marcelo Arigoni told Radio Gaucha earlier that the total number of
victims is still unclear and there may be hundreds injured.
Local newspaper Diario de Santa
Maria reported that the fire started at around 2am.
Club security guard, Rodrigo Moura,
is quoted in the paper as saying the venue was at maximum capacity of between
1,000 and 2,000. He said partygoers were pushing and shoving to escape.
Ezekiel Corte Real, 23, was quoted
by the paper as saying he helped people to escape. 'I just got out because I'm
very strong,' he said.
Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff
today cancelled her participation in a regional summit to travel back to Brazil
following news of the crisis.
'I want to say to the people of our
country and to the people of Santa Maria that at this moment of sadness we are
together, and necessarily we will overcome,' said Ms Rousseff told reporters on
the sidelines of a summit of Latin American and European leaders, in Chile.
She was close to tears as she spoke
and said that the government was 'mobilising resources' to deal with the
tragedy.
'Sad Sunday', tweeted Tarso Genro,
the governor of the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul. He said all possible
action was being taken and that he would be in the city later in the day.
Santa Maria, at the southern tip of
Brazil near the borders with Argentina and Uruguay, is a major university city
with a population of around a quarter of a million.
As news of the tragedy was made public, relatives of the victims began to appear at the scene.
Hundreds of shocked and distraught
grieving families gathered in the street, but were kept cordoned off away from
the charred Kiss club.
The fire appeared to be among the
world's deadliest in a nightclub since a 2004 fire killed 194 people at an overcrowded
working-class nightclub in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
A blaze at the Lame Horse nightclub
in Perm, Russia, broke out in December, 2009, when an indoor fireworks display
ignited a plastic ceiling, killing 152.
A nightclub fire in the US state of Rhode
Island in 2003 killed 100 people after pyrotechnics used as a stage prop by the
1980s rock band Great White set ablaze cheap soundproofing foam on the walls
and ceiling.
And a welding accident reportedly
set off a December 2000, fire at a club in Luoyang, China, killing 309.
culled from dailymail.co.uk
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