A deadly blaze at a nightclub in Kocani, North Macedonia, killed at least 50 people during a concert that had been attended by more than a thousand, state agency MIA reported on Sunday.
Quoting the interior ministry, MIA said, “At least 50 people were killed in a discotheque in Kocani”, a town about 100 kilometers east of the capital, Skopje, where ‘about 1,500 people went to a concert’. AFP has not yet independently confirmed this with Balkan state authorities.
The blaze broke out at the Pulse club at 3:00 a.m. local time (02:00 GMT) as popular hip-hop group ADN was on stage. The nightclub was on fire for several hours, and medical responders evacuated wounded people to Kocani and Stip’s hospitals, roughly 30 km to the south.
Local news reports indicate the fire could have been caused by pyrotechnics deployed during the show. Footage reportedly captures sparks from the stage setting the ceiling ablaze, which then spread quickly throughout the club.
