Brazil to hold three-day mourning after night club tragedy

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff announced on Monday an all-nation three-day mourning following a night club tragedy in south Brazil’s Santa Maria that killed over 230 people.

According to latest figures, a fire that broke at the Kiss club killed 233 people, including 120 men and 113 women. Over 90 people remain injured in hospitals with 14 of them in grave condition. So far, 185 of killed people were identified.

Earlier, Tarso Genro, the governor of Rio Grande do Sul state, where the club was located, announced a week-long mourning in the state.

The fire began on early Sunday morning when a band on stage of the Kiss club started a fireworks display. Thick smoke engulfed the venue after acoustic insulation caught fire. There were at least a thousand of people, most of them students of a local university, when the fire erupted.

Panic intensified when security guards locked the exit. Media reports said the guards were unaware of the blaze and tried to stop people from leaving the building without paying.

A similar incident occurred in Russia in late 2009 when a deadly fire swept through the Lame Horse night club in Perm, 1,400 kilometers east of Moscow after an indoor firework display set the ceiling ablaze, quickly filling the packed club with toxic smoke and killing a total of 156 people.