Key points
- At least 100 people reported injured
- Footage shows building engulfed in flames
- Cause of blaze not confirmed yet
ISLAMABAD: Dozens of people are feared to have been killed in a nightclub fire in North Macedonia, according to local media reports.
The blaze broke out in the early hours of Sunday at the Pulse club in Kocani, a town around 100 km (60 miles) east of the capital, Skopje.
Footage posted on social media shows the building engulfed in flames, with smoke billowing into the night sky.
BBC reported that as many as 59 may have been killed and many more injured, but there is no official confirmation.
Thousands of people had gathered for a concert, state news agency MIA reported on Sunday.
Small town
Citing the interior ministry, MIA said “at least 50 people died in a discotheque in Kocani”, a town some 100 kilometres (60 miles) east of the capital Skopje, where “around 1,500 people attended a concert”. AFP could not immediately confirm this information with the Balkan state’s authorities.
The agency reported that the fire broke out in “Pulse”, a nightclub in the small town with around 30,000 inhabitants during a concert by DNK, a hip-hop duo popular in the country.
Mainly young people
The concert that started at midnight on Sunday was attended mainly by young people.
Online media outlet SDK reported that the fire started at 3 am (0200 GMT), and gave a tally of more than 100 injured citing rescue sources.
The wounded were taken either to the local Kocani hospital or to Stip, some 30 kilometres south of the town.
Local media speculated that the fire was probably caused by the use of pyrotechnic devices.
