2023-10-01 22:31:56
At least thirteen people died in the early hours of this Sunday, October 1, in the fire of several nightclubs in the Spanish city of Murcia, in a commercial and leisure area known as Las Atalayas.
The death toll may increase as the Police advance through the rubble, authorities announced, releasing images of one of the sites, known as La Fonda Milagrosa, full of rubble and incinerated structures.
“We regret to inform you that the deaths in the Atalayas fire amount to 13,” announced José Ballesta, the mayor of Murcia on X (formerly Twitter), who attended the scene.
“Firefighters continue working at the scene and new victims have not been ruled out,” indicated the rescue services, since there are still several missing, while the families of the victims wait at the scene and efforts are being made to recognize the identity of the victims. the rest deceased.
The bodies have already undergone fingerprint examinations to confirm their identity.
The fire, which broke out around 6:00 in the morning at the Teatre nightclub, located in the Atalayas neighborhood, was “extremely serious,” Ballesta told the press from the scene of the incident.
The firefighters who arrived at the scene at 7:00 in the morning managed to put out the fire in less than an hour, but “there are still bodies to be removed” from the rubble, a complicated task given the “risk” of collapse,” he said. the councilor
Four people, two women aged 22 and 25 and two men aged 41 and 45, were affected by smoke inhalation.
A spokesperson for the National Police explained to AFP that the priority is to find the missing.
The official said that on Saturday there was a birthday party at the premises and that not all attendees have been located.
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The origin of the fire is still unknown and the circumstances in which the tragedy occurred are unclear. The authorities are currently targeting three adjacent nightclubs affected by the flames, the Teatre, the Fonda Milagros and the Golden.
At the moment, the bodies were found in the Fonda Milagros premises, the Police indicated.
Diego Seral, spokesperson for the National Police, explained that the fire started in the upper part of the Teatre and Fonda Milagros nightclubs. Originally, they both belonged to the same building, he noted. The second floor of Fonda Milagros collapsed.
“We are going to die, mom.”
The police officer explained that a list of 15 missing people was drawn up, but that it could include both the names of the people whose bodies were found and those who are currently in the hospital.
A man who identified himself as Jairo and who introduced himself as the father of one of the victims, told the press that he had no news about his 28-year-old daughter.
According to what he said, the young woman left him a voice message at 6:00 in which she could be heard crying. He has not been able to communicate with her since then and has shared her message with local media, which has spread quickly through social media.
“Mommy, I love her, we are going to die,” says the young woman, while screams can be heard in the background asking to turn on the light.
Photos released by emergency services show fire trucks throwing water at the blackened façade and thick smoke billowing from the roof of the nightclub.
“Firefighters continue working to establish the number of missing people,” reported the emergency services, which established an information area for relatives.
Three days of mourning
The president of the government, the socialist Pedro Sánchez, expressed 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 also made tennis player Carlos Alcaraz react. “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.
This is not the first time a tragedy of this magnitude has occurred. It is remembered that in 1990, 43 people died in the fire of a nightclub in Zaragoza, in the northeast of the country.
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