Despair as death toll rises

Hundreds of rescuers from the Dominican Republic continue to look for survivors of a roof collapse in a nightclub in the capital, Santo Domingo.

At least 124 people died and more than 150 were injured during the incident, which occurred just before 01:00, local time (05:00 GMT) on Tuesday at the Jet Set Club, officials said.

The chief of emergency operations, Juan Manuel Méndez, estimated that his team had “24 to 36 hours” to try to find survivors under the rubble.

Hundreds of guests were inside the popular place assistant to a concert by the singer of Merengue, Rubby Pérez.

Pérez, as well as the former players of the Major Baseball League Octavio Dotel and Tony Blanco, and a provincial governor are among those who have been confirmed.

Mobile telephony sequences recorded inside the club, which was checked by the BBC, shows Pérez on stage while singing while the recording of man can be heard.

“Something fell from the ceiling,” said the man, says, while his finger can be seen pointing towards the roof.

In the images, can be seen by looking towards the area indicated by humans.

Less than 30 seconds later, a noise can be heard and the recording becomes black while a woman is heard screaming “Dad, what happened to you got there?”.

It is not clear how many people were exactly inside the popular place, but estimates vary between 500 and 1,000 people.

Emergency workers have demolished one of the club walls to better reach those who are still buried under the rubble.

Desperate parents for the news of their missing relatives have held vigilles on the scene.

Among them, the daughter of Pérez, Zulinka, is a support singer in her Merengue group.

She described how she had been on stage, singing with her father when the tragedy took place.

Zulinka said that she had been saved by her husband, who had protected her with her body when the roof collapsed, telling her that she had to go out “to be there for our son”.

She managed to crawl under the rubble and her husband also succeeded.

Her 69 -year -old father, however, remained trapped for hours.

According to Zulinka, he survived the collapse and managed to guide the emergencies to his location.

“They found him singing, he started singing to hear it,” she told local media.

But around 5:00 p.m., the local time, more than 4 p.m. after the tragedy occurred, Zulinka was informed by the rescuers on the scene that his father had died before freeing him.

His manager then confirmed his death.

Nelsy Cruz also survived the initial impact of the fall in debris and was among the first to relaunch the alarm – by directly calling the President of the Dominican Republic.

The first appeal that the governor of the province of Monte Cristi, 41, was placed while she was injured in the debris was to President Luis Abinader, asking her to send the emergency services to save those around her who were also seriously injured.

It was only after that she called the president that Nelsy Cruz called her brother, seven times more base in the major baseball league, Nelson Cruz, said their father.

She later died at the injury hospital she had suffered by the fall of glass.

Octavio Dotel, a former Baseball League launcher, is also one of those who died after being removed from the debris.

The 51 -year -old man was rescued alive but died on the way to the hospital.

It is not yet clear what caused the jet set roof collapse.

The club was previously a cinema and had been transformed into a music site welcoming regular dance music concerts on Monday evening.

Concerts attracted people of all ages and on the day of collapse, a number of athletes, celebrities and politicians were present.

President Abinader said three days of national mourning.