At least 44 people have died after a roof collapsed at a nightclub in the Dominican Republic.
They included a provincial governor and former Major League Baseball pitcher Octavio Dotel, authorities said. Dotel, 51, died on the way to hospital after being pulled from the debris, the sports ministry said.
It is not yet clear what caused the incident, which happened in the early hours of Tuesday during a concert by the popular merengue singer Rubby Pérez, at the Jet Set discotheque in the capital, Santo Domingo.
More than 150 people were injured and efforts to free people from the rubble are continuing. Around 400 search and rescue workers have been deployed to the site.
The director of the Emergency Operations Centre (COE), Juan Manuel Méndez, said he was hopeful that many of those buried under the collapsed roof were still alive.
Jet Set is a popular nightclub in Santo Domingo which regularly hosts dance music concerts on Monday evenings. Politicians, athletes and other prominent figures were in attendance.
Also among the victims was Nelsy Cruz, governor of Monte Cristi province, President Luis Abinader said. She was the sister of former baseball player Nelson Cruz, a seven-time Major League Baseball All-Star.
Dotel meanwhile began playing for the New York Mets in 1999 and played for teams including the Houston Astros, Oakland A’s, New York Yankees, Chicago White Sox and Detroit Tigers until 2013.
Video footage apparently taken inside the club shows people sitting at tables in front of the stage and some dancing to the music in the back while Rubby Pérez sings.
In a separate mobile phone recording shared on social media, a man standing next to the stage can be heard saying “something fell from the ceiling”, while his finger can be seen pointing towards the roof.
In the footage, singer Rubby Pérez, also seems to be looking towards the area pointed out by the man.
Less than 30 seconds later, a noise can be heard and the recording goes black while a woman is heard shouting “Dad, what’s happened to you?”.
One of Rubby Pérez’s band members told local media that the club had been full when the collapse happened “at around 1am”.
“I thought it was an earthquake,” the musician said.
The daughter of Rubby Pérez said her father was among those trapped in the debris.
Speaking to the Diario Libre newspaper, Pérez’s manager Fernando Soto said the singer was found alive but he did not know whether he had been transferred to hospital.
The president of the Dominican Republic, Luis Abinader, has expressed his condolences to the families affected.
