Roof collapse at Dominican Republic nightclub kills a minimum of 27

At the very least 27 individuals have died after a roof collapsed at a nightclub within the Dominican Republic.

Greater than 150 persons are injured and rescue staff are nonetheless making an attempt to free individuals from the rubble.

It isn’t but clear what induced the incident, which occurred within the early hours of Tuesday throughout a live performance by the favored merengue singer Rubby Pérez, on the Jet Set discotheque within the capital, Santo Domingo.

Round 400 search and rescue staff have been deployed to the location.

The director of the Emergency Operations Centre (COE), Juan Manuel Méndez, mentioned rescue staff had been nonetheless searching for individuals beneath the particles.

He added that ambulances had made greater than 100 journeys to the world’s hospitals, at occasions carrying a couple of affected person.

Mr Méndez mentioned he was hopeful that a lot of these buried beneath the collapsed roof had been nonetheless alive.

Jet Set is a well-liked nightclub in Santo Domingo which usually hosts dance music concert events on Monday evenings.

Video footage apparently taken contained in the membership reveals individuals sitting at tables in entrance of the stage and a few dancing to the music within the again whereas Rubby Pérez sings.

In a separate cell phone recording shared on social media, a person standing subsequent to the stage may be heard saying “one thing fell from the ceiling”, whereas his finger may be seen pointing in direction of the roof.

Within the footage, singer Rubby Pérez, additionally appears to be trying in direction of the world identified by the person.

Lower than 30 seconds later, a noise may be heard and the recording goes black whereas a lady is heard shouting “Dad, what’s occurred to you?”.

One in every of Rubby Pérez’s band members informed native media that the membership had been full when the collapse occurred “at round 1am”.

“I assumed it was an earthquake,” the musician mentioned.

The daughter of Rubby Pérez mentioned her father was amongst these trapped within the particles.

The president of the Dominican Republic, Luis Abinader, has expressed his condolences to the households affected.