Nightclub fire in Murcia: 13 dead as rescuers search for more victims

CNN
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At least 13 people were killed and four others were injured in a fire that broke out early Sunday morning at a nightclub in Murcia, Spain, local authorities said.

Emergency services are still at the scene searching for more victims. “New victims cannot be ruled out,” the services said on its website.

The cause of the fire is not yet known.

The Murcia emergency services website said that the injured were two women, aged 22 and 25, and two men, aged 41 and 45, and all of them were taken to hospital due to smoke inhalation.

Survivors gathered outside the club described the scene to reporters as emergency services did their work

“I think we left (the club) 30 seconds – one minute before the alarms went off and all the lights went out and screams that there was a fire,” one survivor told Reuters. “I was in a place at that time where I could get out, but five family members and a couple of friends… “Missing.”

Another man at the scene said: “We don’t know anything. We are waiting for news to see if some of our family members got out alive.”

The president of the Murcia region previously posted on Twitter: “Worry and dismayed by the news coming from there (Murcia). Emergency services continue to operate.”

Emergency services were dispatched at the time of the accident, and local firefighters requested helicopter intervention from the General Directorate of Security and Emergency, later adding that ground resources were sufficient to extinguish the fire, the emergency services said.

Emergency services said: “The Director General of Security and Emergency, Ricardo Villalba, is coordinating on site with the Murcia City Council on the means necessary to manage this tragedy.”

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“Vice President and Minister of the Interior, Emergency and Regional Planning, José Ángel Antelo, is expected to arrive at the site,” they added.

Murcia Mayor José Ballesta told Channel

An information zone for relatives of the victims has been set up in the nearby Palacio de los Deportes, where a team of psychologists will be assigned to provide assistance.