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Rescue teams hurried on Wednesday to locate any remaining survivors beneath the debris of a nightclub in the Dominican Republic, a day after the roof gave way, resulting in the deaths of at least 124 individuals in the country’s most severe disaster in the last twenty years.
The number of fatalities continued to rise on Wednesday as emergency personnel retrieved additional bodies from the wreckage of the Jet Set club in Santo Domingo, the capital.
Juan Manuel Mendez, head of Emergency Operations, said that rescue teams had “24 to 36 hours” of work remaining to search for survivors of the incident, which has also left at least 155 people hurt.
Famous Dominican merengue artist Rubby Perez was performing on stage when the roof collapsed with a deafening sound among hundreds of revelers. Perez was among the few celebrities who lost their lives in the tragedy, alongside two former Major League Baseball players, Octavio Dotel and Tony Blanco.
Numerous family members gathered outside the nightclub as well as at local hospitals and the city morgue, awaiting news about their relatives as forensic teams continued to work on identifying the deceased.
Mercedes Lopez was searching for her son at a tent adjacent to the nightclub where bodies taken from the debris were being brought.
The governor of Monte Cristi municipality, Nelsy Cruz, also lost his life in the incident.
President Luis Abinader, who visited the site, announced three national mourning days.
The collapse of the roof marks one of the most significant tragedies the Caribbean nation, a prominent tourist destination, has encountered in recent years.
In 2005, over 130 inmates in the eastern region of the country perished in a fire ignited by a conflict among prisoners.
