At least thirteen people died on Sunday in the fire from a bowling alley in the city of Murcia, Spaina toll that threatens to increase as the police advance through the rubble, the authorities announced. The mayor declared three days of mourning.
“Thirteen bodies have been located (…) that are already at the forensic medicine institute to begin the corresponding autopsies”reported José Ballesta, the mayor of Murcia, in the southeast of the country, at a press conference.
Three of the 13 deceased could be identified by their fingerprints, the mayor added. He rest will have to be identified through tests of DNA, he added.
“The firefighters of Murcia (…) they will continue to secure the building for the next few hours. It is not ruled out that during these efforts another body may be located,” the rescuers explained shortly after 10:00 p.m.
“There will be no definitive balance of victims” until their work is completed, they added.
The fire, of violence “extreme”, was declared around 06:00 (04:00 GMT) on a street in the neighborhood of watchtowers, with several nightclubs.
It was in one of them, Fonda Milagros, that the thirteen bodies were found. The calls They also spread to two other locations, the Teatre and the Golden, where rescuers do not exclude finding more victims.
Firefighters arrived at the scene at 7:00 a.m. and managed to put out the fire in less than an hour. But rescue tasks have been complicated due to the risk of collapse and the high temperatures in the area.
The causes of the fire and the circumstances in which the drama originated are not clear.
At least 15 people missing
The authorities compiled a list of 15 people missing, but they specified that it was not definitive and that it could contain the names of some of the victims already found.
A man who identified himself as Jairo and who introduced himself as the father of one of the victims He told the press that he had no news about his 28-year-old daughter.
According to what he said, the young He left her a voice message at 6:06 a.m. in which she could be heard crying. He hasn’t been able to contact her since.
“Mommy, I love her, we are going to die”says the young woman, while screams are heard in the background asking to turn on the light.
A spokesperson for the national police explained to AFP that the priority is to find the missing.
He official He said that on Saturday there was a birthday party at the premises and that not all attendees have been located.
Photos released by emergency services show fire trucks throwing water at the blackened façade and thick smoke billowing from the roof of the building. discotheque.
“Pain and dismay”
He king Philip VI expressed his “pain and dismay” after this “tragic day in Murcia” and thanked “all emergency professionals for their exemplary work” in a statement.
The president of the government, the socialist Pedro Sanchezexpressed in X his “affection and solidarity with the victims and relatives of the tragic fire.”
The mayor of Murcia declared three days of mourning and reported that 40 firefighters and 12 emergency vehicles have been mobilized.
“Strength and encouragement to family and friends in these complicated moments,” he said.
The tragedy even made the tennis player react Carlos Alcaraz, native to the region. “Very shocked by the terrible news coming from Murcia after the fire in several nightclubs this past morning,” he wrote in X.
As a sign of mourning, the city’s bars and restaurants decided to keep their doors closed on Sunday night, announced the local hospitality federation HoyTú.
In 1990, 43 people died in a nightclub fire in Zaragoza, in the northeast of the country.
Source: Ambito
