Cnn
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The authorities of the Dominican Republic ended their rescue operation and turned to restoration efforts after the collapse of a night box roof on Tuesday, which left more than 200 dead.
The fatal incident in the early hours of Tuesday morning at the Jet Set nightclub sent shock waves across the country, with three days of mourning declared following the disaster.
The withdrawal of the bodies of the shipwrecked building accelerated from the night on Wednesday to Thursday after the civil protection services withdrew a large part of debris, according to Snayder Santana, engineer of the civil protection services of the Dominican Republic.
According to Santana, the majority of bodies recovered overnight were women and are still identified.
On Wednesday, an official declaration of operations in the country’s emergency center said that “all the reasonable possibilities of finding more survivors” had been exhausted and that the operation is now focusing on the recovery of organizations.
“In the past few days, the rescue teams have worked without interruption to withdraw the debris, helping the wounded and saving people alive,” said the statement published on X.
He continues: “However, having exhausted any reasonable possibility of finding more survivors, the operation is now in a different phase, nevertheless sensitive and crucial: the recovery of human bodies with the respect that I owe you and the dignity that each victim deserves.”
Juan Manuel Méndez, director of the operations center, said at a press conference that no one had been removed from the rubble since Tuesday.
We still do not know how many people are not completed.
Hundreds of rescuers had spent two days painting through the remains of the nightclub after his roof collapsed Tuesday around 1 a.m. during a performance by Merengue Rubby Pérez and his orchestra, the authorities announced. Pérez’s body was recovered on the scene on Wednesday morning, the emergency services said.
The number of incident deaths has increased to 218 on Thursday, said Méndez. He added that 189 people had been saved alive from the rubble. The number of previous deaths was exceeded in 184.
The cause of the disaster is currently undetermined. The nightclub was built over 50 years ago, according to local media reports, and has the capacity to contain up to 500 people.
The Minister of Health, Victor Atallah, said that most of the trauma injuries suffered by people killed were blows to the head. “The majority of deceased people died instantly. Many were seated; the ceiling struck them in the head and chest,” he said, said local newspaper El Caribe.
The Jet Set nightclub is one of the most famous sites in the Caribbean nation and its Monday evening events are particularly well -known. The nightclub is considered to be higher, attracting high -level revelers. Two former baseball players from Major League were present on the site when the collapse occurred, and are among the confirmed deaths.
Aerial images showed the place with a large gaping hole in the middle of the building where the public would have been located during the performance.
Wednesday, desperate families were seen outside the destroyed place, hoping that their loved ones would be saved debris. On Wednesday, local news images showed that the search for the names of their loved ones in lists hanging on a campaign hospital outside the site, while others went from hospital to hospital in search of news.
Dominican president Luis Abinader said three days of mourning after the disaster. He went to the nightclub later Tuesday morning with the First Lady Raquel Arbaje to express her condolences to the families of the victims.
