Police have arrested 13 people involved with a crowded nightclub where fireworks sparked a blaze and stampede that killed at least 43 people and injured 88, state media and officials said.
The detainees included Wang Jing (王靜), the legal representative of the unlicensed King of the Dancers club in the Longgang district of the city of Shenzhen, just across the border from Hong Kong, the state-run Xinhua News Agency quoted police as saying yesterday.
Wang fled the scene when the fire broke out late on Saturday but turned himself in on Sunday after the general manager, vice general manager, safety officer, technician and performers were detained, the report said.
An initial police investigation showed that the blaze was triggered by fireworks ignited during the show in the club with a capacity of 380 people, on the third floor of a marketplace, Xinhua said.
Many partygoers were hurt in a stampede to escape down “a narrow aisle,” the agency quoted a club staff member as saying.
“I saw people rushing out ... and all the lights were off,” it quoted Yang Zhi (楊智) as saying.
Xinhua said Yang suffered burns to his neck.
Video footage aired on Sunday by Hong Kong’s ATV news showed the smoke-filled nightclub after the fire. Overturned tables, broken glass and shoes lost by partygoers littered the floor.
Guangdong Province Governor Huang Huahua (黃華華) blamed poor ventilation for the deaths.
“There was something wrong with the architectural design,” Huang told Hong Kong media after inspecting the nightclub.
“If there was a better ventilation system, there wouldn’t be so many deaths in the fire,” Huang said.
ATV said the nightclub had no windows and only one exit.
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