SKOPJE, North Macedonia (AFP) — The country’s interior minister said on Sunday that authorities were investigating whether “corruption” and “bribery” were linked to a deadly nightclub fire that killed 59 people.

“This company does not have a legal licence for work,” Interior Minister Pance Toskovski told reporters, referring to the nightclub.

“This licence, as many other things in Macedonia in the past, is connected with bribery and corruption,” he said at a press conference in Kocani, a small town in the east of the Balkan country, where the tragedy occurred during a concert.

The fire tore through the nightclub early Sunday, apparently after on-stage fireworks set the venue ablaze, authorities said, announcing arrest warrants for four people.

They said 155 injured people had been taken to hospitals across the country, 18 of them in critical condition. Some of the more serious cases were to be taken to hospitals in other European countries, the country’s crisis centre said.

The blaze started in Club Pulse as the place was packed with more than 1,000 mostly young fans attending a concert by a popular hip hop duo called DNK. “The fire started around 2:30 am, the sparklers that were on stage ignited the Styrofoam on the ceiling. I heard an explosion and the roof collapsed,” one young person who was inside for the concert told local media.

“We all rushed to get out, we all ran towards one door that was for both entry and exit,” the young person was quoted as saying.

Another, a young woman, waiting outside a hospital in the capital Skopje for a friend being treated for burns, said: “Initially we didn’t believe there was a fire. Then there was huge panic in the crowd and a stampede to get out.”

Toskovski, who visited the scene with Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski, said the fire was probably caused by pyrotechnic devices used for light effects at the concert.

“Sparks caught the ceiling, which was made of easily flammable material, after which the fire rapidly spread across the whole discotheque, creating thick smoke,” Toskovski added.

The head of the Kocani hospital, Kristina Serafimovska, told media that, “most of the dead, unfortunately, suffered injuries from the stampede that occurred in the panic while trying to exit”.

“Seventy of the patients have burns and carbon monoxide poisoning,” she said.

One of the members of the DNK duo that had performed, Vladimir Blazev, had burns to his face and needed assistance breathing, his sister told local media outlets.

“This is a difficult and very sad day” for the country, Prime Minister Mickoski wrote on his
Facebook account. “The loss of so many young lives is irreparable, and the grief of their families, their loved ones and their friends is immeasurable.”

The Government later announced a seven-day mourning period. “A decision will also be made on an urgent and extraordinary inspection of all nightclubs, discotheques and restaurants that organise parties,” the Government said in a statement.

Pope Francis sent prayers to the victims and survivors and wished, “the families of the dead, mostly young people, the expression of his deep condolence”, the Vatican said in a message addressed to the bishop of Skopje, Kiro Stojanov.

Videos posted on social networks and shot before the fire showed there were “stage fountains” set up — a type of indoor firework display used during performances.

Other videos published by media showed huge flames emerging from the building, a two-storey white structure in Kocani, a town with 30,000 residents.

An AFP photographer in the town saw military medical vehicles arrive to reinforce staff at the local hospital who were tending to some of the injured.

As the day unfolded the leaders of neighbouring countries Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, Serbia sent condolence and dispatched various forms support.

There were also messages from parts of the European Union, which North Macedonia has ambitions to join.

This photograph shows a view of the burnt down nightclub inside which a fire broke out and killed 59 people in North Macedonia on Sunday. (Photo: AFP)