North Macedonia mourns nightclub disaster

Hind Al Soulia - Riyadh - KOCANI — Marija Taseva was enjoying a night out with her sister at the Pulse club in Kocani, North Macedonia, on Saturday when disaster struck.

They were watching DNK, a popular hip-hop duo in the country, when a fire broke out , which killed at least 59 people and injured 155 others.

"Everyone started screaming and shouting 'get out, get out!'" the 19-year-old told Reuters.

People desperately tried to escape the flames but there was only one exit for around 500 people, as the only other door at the back of the venue was locked.

"I don't know how but I ended up on the ground, I couldn't get up and at that moment people started stomping on me," Ms Taseva said.

She eventually managed to get to safety, but her sister did not.

"My sister died. I was saved and she wasn't."

Ten suspects believed to be responsible for the fire — including "officials from the ministries which gave out this license" — have been arrested.

The fire started around 02:30 local time (01:30 GMT) on Sunday when sparks from pyrotechnic devices hit the ceiling, which was made of highly flammable material, Interior Minister Pance Toskovski said.

Described as an "improvised nightclub" by the local press, the venue, located in a town around 100km (60 miles) east of the capital, Skopje, did not have a legal licence to operate, Toskovski said.

It had previously been a carpet warehouse, and police are looking into whether bribery and corruption were linked to the fire.

"Most of the dead suffered injuries from the stampede that occurred in the panic while trying to exit," the head of the Kocani hospital, Kristina Serafimovska, told reporters.

"Seventy of the patients have burns and carbon monoxide poisoning," she said, according to AFP news agency.

Vladislav Gruev, a specialist in reconstructive and plastic surgery at the University Clinic for Surgical Diseases, has been treating survivors.

"Most of them have extensive burn injuries, above 18% surface body area, second and third degree burns on the head, neck, upper torso, and upper limbs — hands and fingers," he said.

Inspections on Sunday showed several "abnormalities" in the venue, including "deficiencies" in the fire-extinguishing and lighting system, spokesman for the public prosecutor's office Biljana Arsovska said.

Speaking outside the hospital, Red Cross volunteer Mustafa Saidov said the majority of those who died were young people.

"Inside where they are identifying the victims, the situation is far worse. You see that the parents are also quite young people, in their 40s. Their children are 18 or 20 years old."

"The situation is brutal, chaotic, the stories are very sad, and unfortunately many young lives are lost."

One man, whose nephew was injured in the fire, said some people have been unable to locate their children.

Many are angry and searching for answers, like Dragi Stojanov, who lost his only child in the fire.

"Let me tell you in front of everybody. Film me. I am a dead man, I lost everything ... the whole of Europe should know," he told reporters.

"After this tragedy, what do I need this life for? I don't need it.

"I had one child and I lost him."

North Macedonia's President, Gordana Siljanovska-Davkova, said there needed to be accountability for what happened.

"None of the responsible this time should avoid the law, the justice and punishment too," she said.

"Nothing is worthier than human life, specifically young life."

The most seriously injured were being taken for treatment in specialist clinics in Bulgaria, Greece, Serbia and Turkey, she added.

The government has declared seven days of national mourning, and it will hold an emergency session as part of ongoing investigations into how the incident unfolded. — BBC