Nearly 300 people were killed and hundreds more injured when a deadly fire raced through a shopping center on the outskirts of the Paraguayan capital, police said early yesterday.
The toll of the Sunday blaze was especially high because shopping-center security personnel locked the main doors to prevent customers from fleeing without first paying.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Firefighters believe the fire was ignited by a spark hitting an industrial-sized propane gas tank in the food court.
National police spokesman Santiago Velazco said early yesterday that at least 296 people were killed, and more than 300 were injured.
"It is possible that there are more bodies," Velazco said. "We are still removing bodies, though in a cautious, slow manner," he said, referring to fears that the whole building may collapse due to structural damage.
The blaze consumed a significant part of a supermarket within the shopping complex, which also houses offices and a parking garage.
Witnesses said that in the chaos that ensued they heard several explosions. Officials said the fire had likely been sparked by gas canisters that subsequently ignited.
Prosecutor Edgar Sanchez, in charge of investigating the blaze, said that shopping center owner Juan Pio Paiva will be charged with homicide for blocking the doors. Paiva surrendered to the authorities, but denied ordering workers to close the shopping center doors.
One survivor, Rosa Resquin, said she heard someone shouting "close them, close them!" and "no one gets out of here without paying."
"When they arrived, the police and firemen opened the doors, but it was already too late," she said.
Patricia Benitez, 17, who was being treated at a hospital for second-degree burns, said, "they closed the door in our face."
"[People] broke the exit door from outside and then we were able to get out," Benitez said.
"Most people died of smoke inhalation. Burns might have occurred later," said volunteer firefighter Captain Hugo Onieva. "If they had let them out it wouldn't have happened."
Volunteer firefighter spokesman Roque Gonzalez said that shopping-center security personnel even shot at firefighters when they attempted to force open the main door.
Gonzalez also dismissed speculation that the fire was set off by a car bomb in the basement parking lot.
At least 400 people are believed to have been inside the shopping center, according to witnesses.
The complex belongs to the Ycua Bolanos chain and includes several fast-food outlets in addition to the store.
Of those killed, only 75 bodies have been identified, Sanchez said. The charred human remains were being taken to a enclosed military sports center for identification.
Paraguayan President Nicanor Duarte quickly arrived at the complex on Sunday accompanied by Interior Minister Orlando Fiorotto.
"It's a painful moment," Duarte said.
"The police and fire service are working to reduce the magnitude of this disaster," the president said. "We came here to offer our support to relatives as well as police and firefighters," he added.
Duarte also declared three days of national mourning for the victims.
The president of the national congress, Miguel Carrizosa, said the fire "was the biggest tragedy since the Chaco War," referring to the bloody 1932 to 1935 war with neighboring Bolivia.
Doctors and emergency workers from the Argentine province of Formosa, which borders Paraguay's southern border, rushed to the site on the outskirts of Asuncion to boost the number of emergency workers responding to the disaster.
Argentine authorities said they would make their hospitals available to blaze victims, and the Argentine air force readied a plane to speed more aid to Paraguay.
"We must help them immediately," said Formosa's Human Development Minister, Anibal Gomez. "Solidarity has no borders."
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to