Spain Nightclub Catches Fire

At least 13 people have died in a fire at a nightclub in the south-eastern Spanish city of Murcia.

The blaze broke out in the Fonda Milagros nightclub in the Atalayas area, at around 06:00 (04:00 GMT).

Video shared online showed flames raging above the building and thick, dark smoke pouring out of its windows.

It is not clear what caused the fire, which broke out when the club was still busy. Officials say the number of deaths could rise.

Fourteen people are still missing as emergency services continue searching the building.

Police said the fire started at the Fonda Milagros nightclub – known as La Fonda – before spreading to its neighbouring clubs, Teatre and Golden. Local media report that all fatalities are believed to have happened in La Fonda.

Diego Seral, of the national police, said “substantial structural damage” had caused a collapse inside La Fonda.

A 28-year-old woman sent a voice note to her mother when the fire had started, according to the La Verdad de Murcia newspaper, saying: “Mummy, I love you, we’re going to die.” It

She had gone out with her partner and some friends from the nearby town of Caravaca de la Cruz. is not clear if she survived.

“They went because in Caravaca there are no nightclubs,” the woman’s father, named as Jairo, told the paper. “It was the second time she had been.”

Four people are being treated in hospital for smoke inhalation, and a local sports venue is being used to provide counselling for those affected.

Among the victims identified so far, many were attending a birthday party, La Verdad de Murcia newspaper reported.

It cited one of the partygoers – who was there with his cousins, and his aunt, as saying he had returned home amid the confusion only to be told that one of his cousins had not left the building.

It was not clear if they were amongst those confirmed dead.

“We are devastated,” Murcia Mayor Jose Ballesta said. He has decreed three days of mourning in Murcia.

This is believed to be the worst nightclub fire in more than 30 years. In 1990, 43 people were killed in a blaze in a venue in Zaragoza.

 

Source: BBC