59 people or more killed and 150 injured in night club fire in North Macedonia
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Night to Sunday March 16, a fire occurred in a night club in the North Macedonian city of Kočani. 59 people lost their lives and 150 people or more were hospitalized.
Photo Credit: Wikipedia Commons License
Remains of the night club in Kočani. North Macedonia, where a fire took the lives of at least 59 people, and injured more than 150 night to Sunday, March 16, 2025.
Photo by Toshe Ognjanov - https://mk.voanews.com/a/padnati-delovi-od-pokrivot-peplosana-vnatreshnost-mala…, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=162205746
More than 150 people were hospitalized, some with severe burns, Interior Minister Panče Toškovski told a news conference on March 16, according to RFERL.org.
According to the BBC, the fire started around 02:30 local time on Sunday at the club in Kočani, where hundreds of young people had gathered for a concert by a popular hip-hop duo in the country.
Social media footage online from the concert has claimed to have captures pyrotechnical installations being lit inside the building.
According to various media reports, pyrotechnical installations inside the club may have caused the fire, but some reports also say the cause of the fire is still being investigated.
According to Reuters and other media sources, the authorities have said the club had about 500 people inside when the fire occurred. Most of the victims are reportedly young people, including some as young as 16. Some media reports mention victims were between 14 and 24.
Some recent media reports, including the BBC video below, say as many as 1500 people may have been in the venue when the fire occurred.
Interior Minister Panče Toškovski, as reported by AP, stated that 15 individuals were detained for questioning following a preliminary inspection that uncovered the club was operating without a valid license. According to the article he also said that the number of people inside the venue exceeded its official capacity of 250.
Wikipedia.org wrote on March 17 that the Macedonian Interior Minister, Panče Toškovski, announced that over 20 arrest warrants had been issued, with 15 suspects already taken into custody.
Due to the large number of injuries, many victims are now being treated in hospitals in other parts of the country. Neighbouring countries such as Bulgaria, Greece, and Serbia have also taken in patients, according to media reports.
According to Associated Press, pyrotechnics have previously been the cause of deadly fires in nightclubs, including the devastating fire at the Colectiv club in Bucharest, Romania, in 2015 in which 64 people died.
The tragic fire has sparked protest rallies in several places across the country.
Read a summary of this fire and the aftermath at Wikipedia.org.
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