For 19-year-old Marija Taseva and her sister, it was meant to be a night out to see hip-hop band DNK in the North Macedonian town of Kocani.
But it ended with her sister being killed and Marija barely escaping with her life – as a fire in the early hours of Sunday morning tore through the packed show at Pulse nightclub, leaving 59 people dead and more than 150 injured from burns, smoke inhalation and being trampled in the panicked escape toward the building’s single exit.
Tearing up as she sat outside a hospital, Marija said: “There are many dead. It’s terrible. My sister died. I was saved, and she wasn’t”.
“Some people suffocated there, some people stayed in the disco and they couldn’t get the out,” she said.
Describing her escape, Marija said: “Everyone started screaming and shouting: “get out, get out!”.
“I don’t know how, but I ended up on the ground. I couldn’t get up, and at that moment people started stomping on me,” she told Reuters.
“I barely stayed alive and I could barely breathe,” she added.
Marija ended up just needing to be treated for relatively minor injuries to her face and body.
‘Grounds for suspicion of bribery and corruption’
A video on social media of DNK’s concert the night before the tragedy in Macedonia – taking place in Sofia, Bulgaria – showed a pyrotechnics display during their set.
But the next night, sparks from those pyrotechnics in Club Pulse caught on the ceiling, starting the fire which brought down the roof of the venue.
Most of the band is also among the dead, including its lead singer Andrej Gjorgieski, according to local media.
Authorities say they are investigating allegations of bribery surrounding the nightclub that was crammed with young revellers. And North Macedonia’s government ordered a sweeping three-day inspection to be carried out at all nightclubs and cabarets across the country, starting on Monday.
State prosecutor Ljupco Kocevski said a preliminary inspection of the nightclub had revealed numerous safety code violations including a lack of emergency exits, an insufficient number of fire extinguishers and improper access for emergency vehicles.
“The omissions are significant. I can confidently say that this is a failure of the system,” the prosecutor told reporters, also noting the lack of an overhead extinguisher system and fire alarms and the use of flammable materials to line the inside walls.
Officials said 10 people remain in police custody for questioning in Kocani, a city of 22,500 residents some 70 miles east of the capital, Skopje. Interior Minister Panche Toshkovski added that a preliminary inspection revealed the club was operating without a proper license. He said the number of people inside the club was at least double its official capacity of 250.
“We have grounds for suspicion that there is bribery and corruption in this case,” Interior Minister Panche Toshkovski added.
So far about 20 people have been questioned over the fire, and investigators have begun proceedings against 11, including three people who remain in hospital.
‘I grieve the tragic loss of life’
As families gathered outside a hospital for updates, Tomco Stojanov had already been given the devastating news. His 25-year-old son, Andrej, had been killed
“Thank you for your condolences, but my pain is incurable. The wound is incurable,” Tomco said, holding up a photograph of his son, clean shaven and wearing a suit jacket. “He died while returning and entering to save other people. And he was pushed, run over, that’s how my son died.”
The death toll could yet rise, with many of the injured transported to hospital in critical condition, and dozens have been flown to hospitals in Greece, Turkey and Bulgaria for treatment.
The director of Priogov Hospital in Sofia, Bulgaria, said the eight initial patients who had been airlifted there were in an extremely serious condition. The patients in Pirogov include three children aged under 18, and three of the patients are intubated.
Dr Valentin Dimitrov said the patients had injuries to their body, arms and face, and had suffered burns to their respiratory tracts, he told Koha.
Five people have been hospitalised in Greece, and two have undergone surgery while another two have had tracheotomies.
Parents of the victims gathered outside a hospital in the town of Kocani, demanding answers from officials over the tragedy.
Pope Francis shared his “profound condolences” and “his remembrance in prayer for those who lost their lives” in the tragedy, and European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen also shared her sympathies with the families of the victims.
“I grieve the tragic loss of life in the fire in Kocani,” she wrote on X.
Dragi Stojanov, was among the parents searching for answers, after he lost his 21-year-old son Tomche in the fire.
“Let me tell you in front of everybody, Film me. I am a dead man, I lost everything,” he said. “The whole of Europe should know.”
