Search efforts are ongoing after more than 120 people died in a nightclub roof collapse in the Dominican Republic.
Relatives of clubgoers gathered around the site at the Jet Set club in the capital, Santo Domingo, as rescuers transported the injured to hospital and used a crane to remove debris.
“We have some friends here, a niece, a cousin, some friends, who are in the rubble,” said Rodolfo Espinal as he waited for information on his loved ones.
On Wednesday, María Feliz Suero, a lawyer, said she had not been able to find her 37-year-old relative, Gustavo Noel Suero Mella, who was at the club with friends when it collapsed. She believes he is trapped under the stage, but alive, after hearing his voice on a social media video post shared by a survivor.
“We checked hospitals and the National Institute of Forensic Sciences (INACIF), and he’s not there. So he’s still here, and I know he’s alive,” she said.
Altagracia Maldonado, who was outside the nightclub on Wednesday morning waiting for news about her missing friend, said three of her friends had been at the club. One died, another is missing, and one escaped unharmed.
About 370 rescue personnel combed mounds of fallen bricks, steel bars and tin sheets for survivors.
The popular Dominican merengue singer Rubby Pérez, who was performing at the nightclub when the collapse occurred shortly after midnight on Tuesday, was one of those killed, according to his manager.
Also among the dead were the former Major League Baseball players Octavio Dotel and Tony Blanco. Dotel, who was 51, was rescued alive but later died of his injuries, local media reported.
Local media said there were between 500 and 1,000 people in the club when the roof collapsed at about 12.44am on Tuesday. The club had capacity for about 1,700 people.
Pérez was on stage when there was a blackout and the roof came crashing down, according to witnesses. Pérez’s daughter Zulinka told reporters she managed to escape after the roof collapsed but he did not.
The Dominican president, Luis Abinader, said the governor of the Monte Cristi municipality, Nelsy Cruz, was also killed. Abinader has declared three days of national mourning.
By early Wednesday, the preliminary death toll had reached 98, said Juan Manuel Méndez, the director of the Emergency Operations Center. “No people have been found alive since 3pm,” Méndez said in his latest update.
He said: “As long as there is hope for life, all authorities will be working to recover or rescue these people.”
Later on Wednesday, authorities said the death toll had risen to 124.
Zoilo Antonio Ramos said two of his cousins, aged 30 and 27, had sustained multiple but not serious head injuries and were being treated at the Doctor Dario Contreras hospital, in the Dominican capital, where they were expected to be discharged today.
“They were standing near the club’s exit door, and when they noticed sand subtly beginning to fall, they had a bad feeling and said: ‘Let’s get out of here.’ Then part of the roof collapsed, but they managed to escape,” he said.
The journalist and TV host Dániel Lajara said he had lost friends in the incident. “This has been even more shocking for me because I have to cover the … show,” he said. Reporting from the site of the nightclub, he said: “People are desperate, searching for answers for their families whose whereabouts and condition are unknown.”
Another journalist and TV host, Camila Garcia, described “collective mourning” and “a sense of helplessness” across the country. “We all had someone there, a friend, family, people, this is a really small country … we are half an island. So we all know each other,” she said, adding that the saddest part was that so many of the people who died were “super young”.
“There are a lot of people that are still declared as missing … We don’t have a proper rescue operations,” Garcia said.
Helicopter images revealed a large hole where the club’s roof once was. A crane was helping to lift some of the heavier rubble as men in hard hats dug through the debris. Authorities issued a call for Dominicans to donate blood.
Artists paid tribute to Pérez on social media. “The friend and idol of our genre has left us,” Wilfrido Vargas wrote. The Puerto Rican singer Olga Tañón wrote: “Maestro, what a great pain he leaves us.”
The Instagram page of the Jet Set club says it has been in operation for more than 50 years, with shows every Monday until the early hours. Its last post before Monday’s event invited fans to come and “enjoy his [Pérez’s] greatest hits and dance in the country’s best nightclub”.
On Tuesday, the club issued a statement saying it was working “fully and transparently” with authorities.
The collapse is one of the biggest tragedies the Caribbean nation has faced in recent years. In 2023, about 40 people were killed and dozens injured in an explosion linked to a plastics company in San Cristóbal, near Santo Domingo. In 2005, more than 130 prisoners in the east of the country died in a fire caused by a fight between inmates.
Tourism generates about 15% of GDP in the country, with millions of annual visitors attracted by its music, nightlife, beaches and the colonial architecture of the capital.
Agence France-Presse contributed to this report
Source: theguardian.com
