Brazil nightclub fire in Santa Maria kills 233
BRASILIA. January 28. KAZOINFORM At least 233 people have died in a fire that swept through a nightclub in a university city in southern Brazil, police and officials say.
Local media say the fire began when a band let off fireworks at the Kiss club in Santa Maria, Rio Grande do Sul.
Many victims reportedly inhaled toxic fumes or were crushed as panicking clubbers tried to escape.
Bereaved families have been weeping over the coffins of their loved ones at a gym used as a temporary mortuary.
Out of respect for the dead, Brazil postponed a ceremony due on Monday in the capital, Brasilia, to mark 500 days to the 2014 football World Cup.
The first funerals in Santa Maria are expected on Monday morning, local newspaper Diario de Santa Maria reports.
Authorities have released the names of 230 of the victims, with three bodies still to be identified.
According to Brazilian broadcaster Globo, most of the victims were aged between 16 and 20.
More than 100 people were being treated in hospital, mostly for smoke inhalation, BBC reported.
President Dilma Rousseff, who cut short a visit to Chile, has been visiting survivors at the city's Caridade hospital along with government ministers.
She said earlier that everything possible would be done to help the injured and the families of the victims.
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