REPORT: Death toll in Brazil night club fire rises to 245

A fire swept through a crowded nightclub in southern Brazil early Sunday, killing at least 245 people and leaving at least 200 injured, police and firefighters said.     

Police Maj. Cleberson Braida told local news media that the 245 bodies were brought for identification to a gymnasium in the city of Santa Maria.     

That toll apparently would make it the deadliest nightclub fire in more than a decade.     

Braida said the club had only one working exit, and the majority of victims died trampled in an attempt to flee.     

The cause of the blaze was still under investigation but authorities told local reporters that fireworks, perhaps shot off by the band, erupted in the midst of the performance and one hit the roof.     

Michele Schneid, a 22-year-old cashier, told local news media that people began to shout "Fire!," setting off the stampede.     

"Many people ran for the bathrooms and wound up dying suffocated," he said.     

The newspaper Diario de Santa Maria reported that the fire started at around 2 a.m. at the Kiss nightclub in the city at the southern tip of Brazil, near the borders with Argentina and Uruguay.


AP

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