By Konstantin Testorides and Boris Grdanoski
Kocani, North Macedonia: The moment a firework ignited the ceiling of a crowded nightclub in North Macedonia, triggering a horrific blaze that killed 59 people, has been caught on camera, showing the fire take hold as musicians on stage play on, oblivious to what is happening above them.
Local pop group DNK was performing to a packed crowd of mostly young people in the eastern town of Kocani when the fire broke out in the early hours of Sunday, sparking a panicked rush for the club’s single exit. Some of the musicians were among those killed, the BBC reported.
Parents scoured hospitals for their children in the aftermath of the blaze as devastated locals came to realise they knew many of the victims. Three of those killed were under 18, officials said, with the youngest only 16. Victims suffered burns, smoke inhalation and fatal injuries in the crowd crush, with 155 injured, including 20 critically.
A police officer who was checking for drugs and underage guests in the club when the blaze broke out was also among the dead, The New York Times reported.
The video of DNK’s performance shows sparkling on-stage pyrotechnics hitting the ceiling, which begins to ignite. Scenes of chaos follow, with people running through the smoke as the musicians urge them to escape the club as quickly as possible.
Maria Taseva, a 19-year-old survivor of the blaze, outside a hospital in Kocani.Credit: AP
“We even tried to get out through the toilet to find bars [on the windows],” said Marija Taseva, 19, who suffered an injury to her face.
“I somehow managed to get out. I fell down the stairs, and they ran over me, trampled me ... I barely stayed alive and could hardly breathe.”
Throughout Sunday, relatives gathered in front of hospitals and city offices in Kocani, about 115 kilometres east of the capital, Skopje, begging authorities for more information.
Resident Dragi Stojanov was informed that his 21-year-old son, Tomce, had died in the fire.
“He was my only child. I don’t need my life any more ... 150 families have been devastated,” he said. “Children burnt beyond recognition. There are corpses, just corpses inside.”
Simeon Sokolov, 50, found his daughter Anastasija in the emergency ward of the September 8 Hospital in Skopje, where she was being treated for burns and smoke inhalation.
“I just know that there are many children who have suffered,” he said. “Doctors are doing their job, and the number is big.”
The blaze was the worst tragedy in recent memory to befall the landlocked nation, whose population is less than 2 million. The government has declared seven days of national mourning.
An aerial photograph shows the damaged roof of a nightclub in the town of Kocani, North Macedonia.Credit: AP
“The loss of so many young lives is irreparable, and the pain of families, loved ones and friends is immeasurable,” Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski said in a statement on Facebook.
The club’s licence was issued illegally by the economy ministry, Mickoski said, promising those responsible would face justice.
Authorities have arrested about 20 people in connection with the fire, including government officials and the nightclub manager, Interior Minister Pance Toskovski said.
“We have grounds for suspicion that there is bribery and corruption in this case,” Toskovski told reporters without elaborating.
Police officers outside the Club Pulse nightclub on Sunday,Credit: AP
Condolences poured in from leaders around Europe, as well as from the office of Pope Francis, who has been hospitalised for a month for double pneumonia.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky also sent messages of support. “I wish those who were injured a speedy recovery. Ukraine mourns alongside our [North] Macedonian friends on this sad day,” Zelensky wrote in a post on X.
Health Ministry officials said the government had accepted offers of assistance from several neighbouring countries, including Bulgaria, Greece, Serbia and Turkey, where preparations were being made to receive patients with life-threatening injuries.
In the northern Greek city of Thessaloniki, three people with severe burns aged 25, 25 and 19 were in critical condition, being treated at a civilian hospital, with one undergoing surgery, health authorities said.
In Skopje, officials said the injured were sent to hospitals around the country, many being treated for severe burns and smoke inhalation. Multiple volunteer organisations were assisting the effort.
President Gordana Siljanovska-Davkova visited burn victims at a hospital in Skopje and spoke to parents waiting outside.
“It’s terrible ... hard to believe how this happened,” she said, her voice halting with emotion. “We must give these young people the courage to continue.”
The fire caused the roof of the single-storey building to partially collapse, revealing the charred remains of wooden beams and debris. Police cordoned off the site and sent in evidence-gathering teams in an operation also involving state prosecutors.
The government ordered a sweeping inspection to be carried out at all nightclubs and cabarets across the country over the next three days.
Pyrotechnics have often been the cause of deadly fires in nightclubs, including one at the Colectiv club in Bucharest, Romania, in 2015, in which 64 people died. Thirteen people were killed when a fire tore through a crowded nightclub in the Russian city of Kostroma in 2022. The blaze started after a man shot a flare gun at the ceiling, the TASS news agency said at the time.
AP
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