By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
SKOPJE/BUDAPEST (Worthy News) – At least 59 people were killed and more than 100 injured after a fire engulfed a nightclub in North Macedonia, authorities confirmed, adding that arrest warrants were issued for four people
Officials said Sunday that some 155 injured people had been taken to hospitals across the country, 18 of them in critical condition.
Some of the serious cases were to be taken to other European countries for treatment.
The blaze started in the Club Pulse in the eastern town of Kocani around 3:00 am local time as the place was packed with up to 1,500 mostly young fans attending a concert by a popular hip-hop duo called DNK.
“Initially, we didn’t believe there was a fire. Then there was huge panic in the crowd and a stampede to get out,” said one young woman who was at the concert.
She spoke outside a hospital in Skopje where several injured people were treated.
PYROTECHNIC DEVICES
Interior Minister Pance Toskovski said the worst fire in the country’s recent history was caused by “pyrotechnic devices” used during the concert.
Footage showed a band performing on stage, flanked by two torches shooting white sparks into the air.
Witnesses said the sparks ignited the ceiling above the band, which appeared to step away as the video cut off.
Firefighters extinguished the blaze at the charred and smoking entrance.
The interior ministry announced that arrest warrants had been issued for four people in relation to the tragedy, and a criminal investigation opened.
They did not immediately give further details about those targeted by the warrants.
MANY KILLED
“According to the information that we have, there are 59 persons deceased, of which 35 are identified,” Toskovski told reporters.
“Of the identified, 31 persons are from Kocani and four from Stip,” the minister added.
“The number of wounded, according to the latest information up to noon, is 155 persons who are in hospitals across the country,” Toskovski explained.
“Preparations are being made to transport people seriously injured in the fire in Kocani to top hospitals in several European countries,” the head of North Macedonia’s Crisis Centre, Stojanche Angelov, said.
Worthy News learned that the incident comes at a time of concern over corruption in the Balkans, which sometimes leads to the disregard or lack of safety regulations.
Copyright 1999-2026 Worthy News. This article was originally published on Worthy News and was reproduced with permission.
Latest News from Worthy News
President Donald Trump abruptly canceled planned U.S. strikes against Iran on Thursday, saying a multinational agreement to end the conflict had been approved by top Iranian leadership and was awaiting final documents and a formal signing.
Federal authorities said Thursday they have accounted for 146,000 unaccompanied migrant children who entered the United States during former President Joe Biden’s administration, while roughly 300,000 minors remain unaccounted for, amid allegations that many vulnerable children were placed with fraudulent sponsors and exposed to abuse, labor exploitation, and sex trafficking.
Congress left Washington without renewing Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, allowing a key foreign surveillance authority used to track foreign terrorists and national security threats to expire Friday.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on June 11 temporarily allowed President Donald Trump’s 10 percent global tariffs to remain in effect, extending a pause on a lower court ruling that had struck down the duties as unlawful.
Dutch police detained a young man l man after four people, including three children, were killed when a car struck a group of cyclists during a school outing near the Belgian border on Thursday, officials said.
The leaders of Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia are expected to meet this month amid growing debate within the European Union over how future member states should be admitted and monitored.
China has condemned the European Union’s ban on public funding for Chinese-made solar inverters, a move that analysts say could affect more than a fifth of new solar capacity and complicate efforts to meet the bloc’s self-imposed “climate targets.”