Nightclub Fire Kills at Least 13

Families await word in southeastern Spain on those missing
By Bob Cronin,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 1, 2023 3:35 PM CDT
Crews Search Nightclub After 13 Are Killed in Fire
Family members grieve while waiting at a nearby sports palace for word about relatives and friends after a nightclub fire in Murcia, Spain.   (AP Photo/Alfonso Duran)

Firefighters searched for more victims Sunday after a nightclub fire killed at least 13 people in southeastern Spain. Survivors hugged each other outside later in the day in Murcia while waiting for word about people missing in the blaze that started in the Teatre club, which adjoins two other nightclubs, the Guardian reports. "I think we left 30 seconds, 1 minute before the alarms went off and all the lights went out the screams saying there was a fire," one person told Reuters. "I was at place at that time where I could get out, but five family members and two friends are missing."

Part of the building collapsed, hindering rescue efforts, per the New York Times. The crews "are working in hellish circumstances," said Mayor José Ballesta, who declared three days of mourning. It's the deadliest nightclub fire in Spain in 33 years, per the BBC. Officials did not immediately specify the cause of the fire. A center was set up in a sports venue for families that was to include staffing by psychologists, per CNN. A newspaper, the La Verdad de Murcia, reported that a 28-year-old woman left a voice message for her mother when the fire began saying, "Mummy, I love you, we're going to die." (More Spain stories.)

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