(Murcia) The Spanish authorities will comb through the rubble of the nightclub in Murcia (south-east) on Monday where thirteen people lost their lives on Sunday, to understand what could have caused such a violent fire.
After deeming it “unlikely” that other bodies would be found in the rubble, the authorities finally confirmed that all the people, who could not be located after the fire by their relatives, had been found.
“It seems that there are no more missing people and that the people who had not been located have been located,” assured, on public television, the president of the region of Murcia, Fernando López Miras.
PHOTO VIA AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Three of the five people still missing on Sunday evening were located on Monday morning “on the coast, their phones were off and they gave signs of life this morning”, explained the mayor of Murcia, José Ballesta.
Twenty-four hours after this tragedy, the inhabitants of this city, which declared three days of mourning, were invited to respect a minute of silence at 12 p.m. (6 a.m. Eastern time).
PHOTO JOSE JORDAN, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
“It’s shock, desolation. There is nothing we can say to console the families and friends of the victims, there are no words. They are exhausted,” added Mr. López Miras. “What they need is for their loved one to be identified” to be able to begin their mourning.
A reception cell has been set up.
The fire, of “extreme” violence according to the mayor of Murcia, broke out on Sunday around six a.m. (12 a.m. Eastern time) in a neighborhood with several nightclubs.
It was in one of them, the Fonda Milagros, that the thirteen victims died who, when the fire started, “were gathered in a very small space,” said a police spokesperson. , Diego Seral.
The flames spread to two other nightclubs, the Teatre and the Golden. Firefighters, dispatched to the scene at 7 a.m., managed to extinguish the fire within an hour.
Three bodies identified
According to the police spokesperson, only 3 of the 13 dead have so far been able to be identified using their fingerprints. Identifying the others will require a “more complex process” with DNA testing, he said.
“The bodies are calcined and working (on their identification) will be very complicated,” explained the prefect of Murcia, Francisco Jiménez.
The causes of this tragedy, which caused turmoil in Spain, are still unclear.
The investigation was delayed by the heat and the risk of collapse in the nightclub, the firefighters having asked the scientific police on Sunday to wait until the temperature dropped before being able to return.
According to the prefect of Murcia, who thinks that the police will be able to begin their investigation on the scene on Monday, the fire “started at Fonda (Milagros) and could have spread very quickly through the air conditioning ducts”.
” We are gonna die ”
According to the press, the fire started from one floor of the nightclub where people were gathered to celebrate a birthday.
This particularly deadly fire caused turmoil in Spain, with King Felipe VI expressing his “pain and dismay” after “this tragic day”.
A man named Jairo, presenting himself as the father of one of the victims, played to the press a voice message sent by his 28-year-old daughter at 6:06 a.m.
“Mom, I love you, we are going to die, I love you, mom,” says the young woman, crying, while we hear screams behind her.
In 1990, 43 people died in a fire at a nightclub in Zaragoza, in the north-east of Spain.