At least 51 people were killed and more than 118 injured in a nightclub fire in northern Macedonia, officials said.
The fire broke out around 02:30 (01:30 GMT) at the Pulse Club in Kocani, a city about 100 km (60 miles) east of the capital, Skopje.
Up to 1,500 people attended a DNK concert, a popular hip-hop duo in the country when the fire started. Images published on social networks show that the roof of the building has engulfed in the flames.
Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski called this “difficult and very sad day” for the country that had now lost so many “young lives”.
ReutersInterior Minister Pance Toskovski said the first reports suggested that the fire started from sparks caused by pyrotechnic devices.
Speaking in front of the Kocani police station, he said that the sparks had struck the ceiling, which was made of very flammable materials.
Images show the group playing on stage when two rockets go out, sparks and then set fire to the ceiling before spreading quickly.
The video verified by the BBC shows people who try to turn the flames on the ceiling. It shows that the club was always full and that people seemed to look at efforts to turn off the fire, rather than leaving.
ReutersMarija Taseva, 20, told Channel 5 TV that she had been taken in a crush at the club when people rushed for outings. She said that she had fallen to the ground and that she had been trampled on in chaos before successfully out.
His family was still looking for his 25 -year -old sister, who had not been found in any local hospital – and may have been transferred to Skopje for treatment.
The Kocani hospital initially received 90 patients with serious burns.
The Minister of Health said that 18 had remained in critical condition.
The director of Kocani Hospital Kristina Serafimova told local media that the staff had struggled to identify patients due to a lack of identity cards. However, she continued saying that the deceased were 14 to 24 years old.
In a statement, the Prime Minister said that the government was “fully mobilized and would do everything necessary to manage the consequences and determine the causes of this tragedy”.
A man was arrested, said the Minister of the Interior without providing more details.
The DNK has been trained in 2002 and exceeded graphics in the last decade.
