VOA News
January 27, 2013
Brazilian officials say 232
people are dead and more than 100 injured after a fire swept through a
nightclub crowded with university students in the southern city of Santa Maria.
Authorities said the fire
broke out early Sunday at a club known as 'Kiss' and that while the cause of
the blaze has not yet been confirmed, a flare or firework that was part of the
band's pyrotechnic display is the likely cause. Witnesses reported that the
fire broke out after band members lit flares.
Many of the victims died of
asphyxiation or from being trampled as panicked revelers pushed and shoved to
escape the building. A recount lowered the toll from the 245 earlier believed
to have been killed.
The fire ranks among the
deadliest ever in a nightclub, comparable to a blaze in China in 2000 in which
309 people died and one in 2004 in a Buenos Aires club in which 194 were
killed.
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says he is saddened to learn about the tragedy and is especially moved that so many young people and students were killed. He says he sends his condolences to their families.
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says he is saddened to learn about the tragedy and is especially moved that so many young people and students were killed. He says he sends his condolences to their families.
Brazilian President Dilma
Rousseff cut short a visit to Chile early Sunday to return home following the
fire.
Governor Tarso Genro of Rio
Grande do Sul is quoted in a Twitter message as saying "all possible
measures" were being taken. He and other officials were coordinating
rescue efforts as family members gathered at hospitals in hope of getting news about
their loved ones.
Santa Maria is a major
university city with a population of around 250,000. The town is situated at
the southern tip of Brazil near the borders with Argentina and Uruguay.
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