NOS News•today, 4:16 PM
At least 29 people have been killed in a fire at a nightclub in Istanbul. Local media report this.
Eight injuries were initially reported, seven of whom were taken to hospital with serious injuries. Presumably many of them died later. Now the Istanbul Governor’s office reports that one more person with serious injuries is still being treated in hospital.
The fire has now been extinguished. The nightclub was closed for renovations. The club is located on the ground floor of a sixteen-storey residential building in the Besiktas district, on the European side of the city. According to the governor of Istanbul, the victims were probably in the building because of renovation work.
The cause of the fire is under investigation. According to news channel Haberturk, a spark may have spread to the sound systems during work, causing a fire. Oxygen cylinders then exploded. The newspaper Hurriyet reports that there was an explosion at the club’s stage where the fire spread.
Authorities arrested five people, including club managers and one person responsible for renovations.
The devastation is clearly visible in images:
Several dead in fire at Istanbul nightclub
