With flags still flying at half mast in North Macedonia, grief over a fire that tore through a nightclub killing dozens of people turned to anger as thousands took to the streets in protest.
In Kočani, the town where the fire destroyed the Pulse venue early on Sunday, demonstrators demanded justice for the 59 people who lost their lives and called for an end to the corrupt practices blamed for the tragedy.
“I want everyone who helped this place carry on with its business to be jailed,” said 16-year-old Jovan, referring to the nightclub as he joined other protestors in Kočani’s central square. “We need change because this is a corrupt country.”
Minutes later the rally descended into violence as rock-throwing youths ransacked a cafe believed to belong to the owner of the nightclub.
With more than 150 people injured and more than 50 transferred to specialist hospitals in Greece, Turkey, Serbia and Bulgaria, there is almost no one in the Balkan nation of close-knit family bonds who has not been affected by the disaster.
Like Jovan, who lost a friend in the inferno, most victims were teenagers or young adults who had crammed into Pulse for an eagerly awaited night with DNK, a popular hip-hop duo. More than 20 of those wounded and three of those killed were under the age of 18, according to the interior ministry.
Mourners grieve during a protest following a fire at the Pulse nightclub that resulted in dozens of deaths in the town of Kočani. Photograph: Marko Đurica/Reuters
On Monday, as relatives queued outside hospitals to give DNA samples as part of the grim procedure of identifying the dead, bulldozers and workers could be seen digging graves in Kočani, a town of fewer than 30,000 residents 60 miles east of the capita, Skopje. Funerals are expected later this week, once autopsies have been conducted.
“I will have no mercy,” the country’s prime minister, Hristijan Mickoski, said on Sunday. “There is no person in Macedonia who is not broken and with a destroyed spirit after this.”
Mickoski said preliminary investigations had revealed that the entertainment venue was operating illegally with an invalid licence obtained from the country’s economy ministry “in exchange for a bribe”.
A former mayor of Kočani, Ratko Dimitrovski, had refused to issue a permit for the nightclub because it failed to meet basic safety standards.
The fire broke out at about 2.30am local time (0130 GMT) when sparks from pyrotechnic devices, described variously as fireworks and flares, set the roof ablaze. Many of the victims died in the ensuing crowd crush as panic-stricken people attempted to escape.
Some demonstrators damaged an establishment that was said to belong to the owner of the nightclub. Photograph: Marko Đurica/Reuters
By Monday, the scale of the security violations were laid bare by the country’s state prosecutor, Ljupco Kocevski. The building, a former carpet warehouse, had no fire alarm system, only two fire extinguishers and a ceiling made of highly flammable material.
“It did not have two exit doors, but only one single improvised metal door at the back of the building, which was locked and without a handle on the inside,” Kocevski said, listing the infractions. “There was no access for fire engines from either side in accordance with the fire safety regulations. The interior of the building was lined with plasterboard, but it was not fireproof.”
Local media outlets described the former warehouse as an “improvised nightclub”.
Among the 20 people detained in connection with the disaster is a former economy minister, Kreshnik Bekteshi, under whose watch the club’s licence is thought to have been issued; his top aide who allegedly signed the document, officials of various state agencies and the venue’s manager.
“The detainees will be questioned since there are grounds for suspicion that there is bribery and corruption linked to the fire,” the interior minister, Pance Toskovski, told reporters. “The number of people inside the club was at least double its official capacity of 250.”
The Pulse nightclub was said to have multiple safety violations. Photograph: Georgi Licovski/EPA
Initial reports suggested as many as 1,500 were at the venue when the blaze broke out. On Monday as authorities stepped up inspections of nightclubs across the country, Mickoski said he had been astounded to discover that licences for only 12 nightclubs had been issued last year despite the number of such venues nationwide.
“The situation on this issue is shocking,” he said, while visiting some of the wounded in the Mother Teresa hospital in Skopje.
The rightwing-led government, in power since last year, has declared a seven-day period of national mourning in honour of the dead. Memorial rallies have also been held.
Thousands of students gathered on Monday at Skopje University in a silent protest that they have vowed to repeat daily over the course of the next week. More rallies are expected on Tuesday after a civic group called for people to rally in city centres around North Macedonia to place further pressure on the government to stop the corruption that has now cost the 1.8-million strong nation so many young lives.
