27 Dead, 180 Injured During Fire at Metal Show in Bucharest

The club, known as Colectiv, was hosting a free album release show for the band Goodbye to Gravity.

27 people were killed and at least 180 injured after a fire erupted during a metal show at a club in Bucharest, Romania on Friday, according to the Telegraph. The club, known as Colectiv, was reportedly hosting a free album release show for the metal band Goodbye to Gravity. After a pyrotechnic display went awry, two large foam pillars were engulfed in flames and started to fill the club with smoke. "They then set fire to wood inside the building, which burned everything really quickly," audience member Lemi Black tells the Telegraph. "It was made worse by the fact that the only way out was a relatively small door."

Romanian authorities have declared the situation a "code red emergency," with the initial emergency services response reportedly burdened by the severity and volume of injuries. According to an attendee’s account quoted by USA Today, the fire caused the estimated 400 attendees to rush toward the entrance, which was apparently too narrow to accommodate the mass exit. This triggered a stampede, with people climbing over each other and attempting to locate friends by reportedly screaming "Is it you? Where are you? I can’t see you."

"It was total chaos, people were trampling on each other," another witness tells Antena 3 TV. "It was a tragedy that could have been avoided if there had been more organization from the emergency services." Bogdan Oprita, the spokesperson for Floreasca Emergency Hospital, was quoted by Spin as calling the incident "the worst bloodshed since the 1989 anti-Communist revolution."

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