A nightclub fire in North Macedonia claimed hundreds of casualties early Sunday.
The blaze at Club Pulse in the town of Kocani is believed to have begun when a pyrotechnics display set the roof afire during a concert around 2:30 a.m. local time. Authorities took one person into custody while investigating the incident, though it was not clear why.
At least 59 people died and 18 others were in critical condition. Authorities said 155 clubgoers were injured.
Among the dead is a 21-year-old man named Tomce, according to his father, Dragi Stojanov.
“Children burnt beyond recognition,” he said. “There are corpses, just corpses inside.”
Women cry outside a hospital in the town of Kocani, North Macedonia, on Sunday, following a massive nightclub fire. (AP Photo/Armin Durgut)
North Macedonia Interior Minister Panche Toshkovski was said to have appeared shaken when relaying information to reporters.
“All our capabilities have been put to use, in a maximum effort to save as many lives as possible of the young people involved in this tragedy,” he said.
World leaders including Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy offered condolences.
“Ukraine mourns alongside our Macedonian friends on this sad day,” he posted on X.
Police officers hold plastic bags on the site of a nightclub in the town of Kocani, North Macedonia, on Sunday, following a massive fire in the nightclub early Sunday. (AP Photo/Visar Kryeziu)
North Macedonia shares border with Greece, Albania, Bulgaria and Kosovo. It’s home to 1.83 million people, according to the World Health Organization.
Local media said the single-level club where the fire occurred had been operating for several years after being converted from a carpet warehouse.
Nightclub fires caused by pyrotechnics have been responsible for scores of deaths over the years.
A 2015 pyrotechnics mishap killed 64 revelers in a Bucharest, Romania, club. In 2003, a fire killed 100 people attending a Great White concert in the Rhode Island venue Station after a pyrotechnic display ignited foam lining the club’s walls.
The deadliest nightclub fire in U.S. history happened in 1942, when 492 people perished inside Boston’s Cocoanut Grove club after patrons found themselves unable to open doors as panicked clubgoers surged forward. That led to changes in the way clubs operate, according to the Boston Fire Historical Society.