The death toll was
expected to climb as firefighters continued to pull bodies from the Kiss
nightclub in Santa Maria, said Col. Adilomar Silva, the regional
coordinator of civil defense.
Most of those killed
appeared to have died of smoke inhalation, Silva said. Hundreds are
believed to have been injured, though an exact count was not immediately
available.
Many people were trampled in the panic to leave the club, one security guard told CNN affiliate Band News.
Police described it as the worst tragedy ever to affect Brazil's Rio Grande do Sul state, Band News said.
The fire started at about 2 a.m. after the acoustic insulation in the Kiss nightclub caught fire, Silva said.
There was a pyrotechnics
show going on inside the club when the fire started. Authorities stopped
short of blaming it for the blaze, saying the cause was still under
investigation.
The incident called to
mind a 2003 nightclub fire in Rhode Island where pyrotechnics used by
the heavy metal band Great White ignited a blaze that killed more than
90 people.
Pyrotechnics were also
involved in a 2004 night club fire in Argentina that killed 194 people
and a 2009 explosion at a night club in Russia that left more than 100
dead.
The Kiss nightclub is popular with young people in Santa Maria, drawing between 2,000 and 3,000 people a night on the weekends.
The blaze broke out
during a weekend when students were celebrating the end of summer.
Students at many Brazilian universities return to school on Monday.
Santa Maria is home to the Federal University of Santa Maria as well as a number of other private universities and colleges.
Brazilian President
Dilma Rousseff, who has been in Chile for a regional summit, was
expected to come to Rio Grande do Sul, the state government said in a
statement.
Source: CNN
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