Tolls in Northern Macedonia Hip-Hop Gig Blaze rise to 59: Interior Minister

• 155 injured who were taken to hospitals, 18 in critical condition.
• The fire was probably caused by the use of pyrotechnic devices: officials.
• Blaze started at Club Pule in Kocani around 3am.
  

A fire broke a nightclub in northern Macedonia early Sunday, killing 59 people, apparently after fireworks, put the Place Flaze, authorities said, announcing arrest warrants for four people.

They said that 155 injured had been taken to hospitals across the country, 18 of them in critical condition. Some of the serious cases were to be transferred to other European countries for treatment.

The fire started in the pulse of the club in the eastern city of Kocani around 3am, as the place was full of more than 1,000 mainly young fans watching a concert from the popular hip-hop twin called DNK.

“At first we didn’t think there was a fire. Then there was a huge panic in the crowd and a massacre to get out,” a young woman at the concert told local media out of a hospital in the capital Skopje.

Firefighters and paramedics responded quickly and “tried to rejuvenate people […] But it wasn’t enough, “said the woman, who was waiting outside for a friends, who were treated for burns in his hand.

The fire was probably caused by the use of pyrotechnic devices “used for light results at the concert,” said Interior Minister Pance Toskovski, who visited the scene with Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski.

“The sparks received the ceiling, which was made of easily flammable material, after which the fire quickly spread throughout the album, creating thick smoke,” Toskovski said.

The interior ministry announced that arrest warrants had been issued for four people in relation to the tragedy and opened a criminal investigation. They did not immediately give more details about those targeting the warrants.

“According to the information we have, there are 59 people who have been detected from 35. Of the recognized, 31 people come from Kocani and four from Stiip,” Toskovski said.

“The number of injured, according to the latest information by noon (1100 GMT), is 155 people in hospitals across the country,” Toskovski said.

“Preparations are being carried out for the transportation of people who were seriously injured in Kokani in top hospitals in various European countries,” said Northern Macedonia Crisis Center head, Stojanche Angelov.

Kocani hospital chief Kristina Serafimovska told the media that patients undergoing treatment there were between 14 and 25 years.

“Seventy of patients have burns and carbon monoxide poisoning,” he said.

One of the members of the twin DNK he had executed, Vladimir Blazev, had burns on his face and needed help for breathing, his sister said in local media.

‘Very sad day’

“This is a difficult and very sad day” for the country, Prime Minister Mickoski wrote on his Facebook account.

“The loss of so many young lives is irreparable and the sadness of their families, their loved ones and their friends are incalculable,” he said.

The videos posted on social networks and shot before the fire showed the use of “fountains”, which are a type of internal fireworks used during the performances.

Other videos released by the media showed huge flames emerging from the building, a two -storey white structure in Kocani, a city of 30,000 inhabitants.

A AFP The photographer in the city saw military medical vehicles arrive to strengthen staff at the local hospital that tends to some of the injured.

The leaders of the neighboring countries offered help.

Bulgarian Prime Minister Rossen Jeliazkov spoke on Facebook of the fire that was “a huge human tragedy” and offered to fly his aviation to some of those injured in medical facilities in the Bulgarian capital of Sofia and the city of Varna.

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis told X, a former Twitter, that he sent “heartfelt condolences to the people of Northern Macedonia for the lives lost in the tragic fire”.

“Greece is ready to help at this difficult time,” he added.

Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama said it was “in loss for words” and expressed the readiness “to provide any help it may need.”

There were also messages from departments of the European Union, which Northern Macedonia has ambitions to participate.

The head of European Union foreign policy, Kaja Kallas, told X that he was “deeply sad for the tragic fire” and that “the EU shares the sadness and pain of the people of Northern Macedonia”.