The club Pulse is packed to the brim with young people dancing and getting sweaty. From the stage, pyrotechnics are blasting towards the ceiling. In clips filmed by club-goers, the moment when everything goes wrong is captured: A spark reaches the inner ceiling, then another and another. It flares up when they get a foothold. Then it happens fast.
For 19-year-old Marija Taseva and her older sister, it was a regular night out. When chaos broke out, they tried to escape through the bathrooms, but the windows were covered with bars.
In some way, I managed to get out. I tumbled down the stairs and people ran over me, trampled on me... I almost died, I could hardly breathe, says the 19-year-old to AP.
Several under 18
In the chaos, she lost her sister.
My sister died. I was rescued, but not her.
As night turned to day, panicked relatives gathered outside the club in the small town of Kocani. For hours, burned bodies were carried out of the partially collapsed building. Left on the dance floor were hastily abandoned sneakers.
Besides the dead, over 150 people were injured in the fire – some from smoke, others from the flames, several from being trampled and crushed when hundreds tried to escape through the only door. Among the dead and injured are several people under 18, reports BBC, as well as band members from DNK who performed during the evening.
The situation is brutal. Chaotic, says Red Cross volunteer Mustafa Saidov to the media company.
Many arrested
In North Macedonia, with a population of just around two million, almost everyone knows someone who has been affected.
We are all in shock. I am shocked myself: as a mother, as a person, as president, said President Gordana Davkova Siljanovska in a speech to the nation on Sunday evening, promising that those responsible will be held accountable for the tragedy.
In connection with the ongoing investigation, 15 people have been arrested since it emerged that Pulse – locally referred to as an "improvised nightclub" – lacked a permit. According to the country's interior minister, corruption may have contributed to the disaster.
For many North Macedonians, the fire is a symptom of a broken society.
Macedonia is on its deathbed. We have no credible institutions, our healthcare system is in shambles, education is poor, the judiciary is partisan and corrupt to the core. Only God can save Macedonia now, says economist Beti Delovska to AP.
