The rescuers of the Dominican Republic ended the search for survivors of a nightclub roof, while the number of deaths exceeded 180 in the worst catastrophe of the Caribbean Nation for decades.
On Wednesday, the emergency staff reported 60 more deaths from the morning counting, the total of the confirmed counting reaching 184.
An official press release had previously declared that “all the reasonable possibilities of finding more survivors” had been exhausted and that the operation will focus on the recovery of organizations.
“Today, we will finish the rescue effort,” said Jose Luis Frometa Herasme, firefighters in the Dominican capital Santo Domingo, where the tragedy occurred in the Jet Set nightclub in the first hours of Tuesday, sending shock waves through the nation.
Parents of disappeared people were still desperately awaiting the news from their loved ones outside the club in ruins, in hospitals and local morgue.
More than 300 rescuers, helped by sniff dogs, had spent two days painting through mounds of fallen bricks, steel bars and tin leaves, supported by firefighters from Puerto Rico and Israel.
Aerial images of the site have shown a scene resembling the consequences of an earthquake, with a gaping hole where the club’s roof – a lighting of the nightlife of Santo Domingo for half a century – had been.
More than 500 people were also injured when the roof collapsed while the famous singer of Merengue, Rubby Pérez, performed for a crowd of hundreds.
Pérez and two former Baseball players in the major league were among the dead.
Antonio Hernandez, whose son worked in the Jet Set nightclub, told AFP that his hopes to find his living son had started to disappear while looking more and more bodies, but no survivor, was recovered.
The remains in a body bag resembled the height and the construction of his son, said Hernandez, but he did not investigate. “I’m not yet in the stomach to discover the worst.”
Mercedes Lopez said that she was suffering a lot while waiting to learn the fate of her son. “We have not found it on the lists or in hospitals,” she said.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio sent his condolences on Wednesday and said that at least one American citizen was one of the victims. “Our hearts go to families and relatives affected by this devastating event,” he wrote on X.
Pope Francis also sent condolences.
The local media said that there were between 500 and 1,000 people in the club when the disaster struck approximately 12:44 p.m. on Tuesday. The club can hold 1,700 people.
A video published on social networks has shown that the place suddenly plunged into darkness while Pérez sang.
The star of the star, Zulinka, managed to escape but not her father. His body was recovered on Wednesday.
Tributes to the singer, known for tubes such as Volvere and Enamorado of Ella, have poured out of all of Latin America. “Maestro, what a great pain leaves you,” wrote Olga Tanon, a award -winning singer to Porto Rican’s grammys, on social networks. The former leader of the Pérez group, Wilfrido Vargas, said that he was “devastated” to the death of an “idol of our genre”.
The world of baseball has cried the death of Octavio Dotel, a 51-year-old baseball launcher who won the World Series with the St Louis Cardinals in 2011 and Tony Blanco, 45, who also played in the United States.
President Luis Abinader said three days of national mourning.
Iris Pena, a survivor, said on local television that she had made for the door after “dirt started to fall like dust” in her drink, then a stone fell and cracked the table where she was sitting. “The impact was so strong, as if it had been a tsunami or an earthquake,” she said.
The Jet Set Club said on Tuesday that it worked with the authorities by probing the disaster, one of the worst in Dominican history.
In 2005, more than 130 prisoners east of the country died in a fire caused by a fight between detainees.
