Rescue workers in the Dominican Republic have ended the search for survivors of a nightclub roof collapse as the death toll surpassed 220 in the Caribbean nation’s worst disaster in decades.
The tragedy at the Jet Set nightclub early on Tuesday has sent shock waves through the nation and triggered a massive emergency response.
But on Wednesday afternoon the government declared that “all reasonable possibilities of the discovery of survivors” had been exhausted and the operation would now focus on “the recovery of bodies”.
The statement said the shift from rescue to recovery, was “simply a reflection of technical criteria and does not signify in any way that the case is being closed or that attention to the tragedy will be reduced”, adding that an investigation into the cause of the tragedy would follow.
Local journalist and TV host Camila García said some in the deeply religious country were still praying for miracles. “I’ve never seen my country so quiet and so sad ever in my 34 years of life,” she said.
“We are a really Catholic country. So we don’t lose faith. The authorities are giving the information as it is. We don’t have a realistic hope that someone, after three days under the rubble, is going to be alive … but people are still searching for their families everywhere,” she said.
María Pimentel Rosario, who lost her siblings, Elizabeth Yesenia Pimentel Rosario, 39, and José Marino Pimentel Rosario, 37, said she believed the search for survivors should continue. “They shouldn’t stop the rescue efforts; they should keep going … I believe there are still people there, and every life matters,” she said.
Others, like David Espaillat, who lost his 60-year-old cousin, Ramón Antonio Acevedo, said they had accepted that, with the time that has lapsed, the heat, and the extent of the trauma likely suffered by those inside, it is unlikely that anyone would be found alive.
Aerial images of the site showed a scene resembling the aftermath of an earthquake, with a gaping hole where the roof of the club – a fixture of Santo Domingo’s nightlife for half a century – had been.
García said that, as relatives of missing people search for their loved ones in hospitals and the local morgue, some of the bodies were difficult to identify. More women than men remain unidentified, she said, because while men in the country are likely to carry their IDs in their pockets, women tend to carry theirs in purses, which they would have lost in the disaster.
More than 300 rescue workers, aided by sniffer dogs, had spent two days combing through mounds of fallen bricks, steel bars and tin sheets, supported by firefighters from Puerto Rico and Israel.
More than 500 people were injured when the roof caved in while renowned merengue singer Rubby Pérez was performing for a crowd of hundreds.
Pérez and two former Major League Baseball players were among the dead.
García said the tragedy had touched almost everyone in the country with a population of 11 million, even those at the centre of the search and rescue operation. The public works minister, Eduardo Estrella, discovered his son and daughter-in-law, Alexandra Grullon, had died at the nightclub as he helped coordinate the emergency response.
Antonio Hernández, whose son worked at the nightclub, told AFP his hopes of finding his son alive had begun fading as he watched more and more bodies, but no survivors, being retrieved.
The remains in one body bag resembled his son’s height and build, said Hernandez, but he did not investigate. “I don’t have the stomach to find out the worst yet.”
The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, sent his condolences Wednesday and said at least one US citizen was among the victims. “Our hearts go out to the families and loved ones affected by this devastating event,” he wrote on X.
Pope Francis also sent condolences.
Dominican Republic journalist and TV host Dániel Lajara said the incident is already being described as one of the most shocking tragedies in the country’s recent history.
Lajara, who lost a friend in the disaster, said it had been a tough story to report on. “Today I just want to say exactly what the Lord tells us in the scriptures: God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble,” he said.
Between 500 and 1,000 people were reportedly in the club on Tuesday when disaster struck about 12.44am local time.
A video posted on social media showed the venue suddenly plunged into darkness while Pérez was singing.
The star’s daughter, Zulinka, managed to escape but her father did not. His body was recovered on Wednesday.
Tributes to the singer, known for hits such as Volvere and Enamorado de Ella poured in from across Latin America.
The baseball world meanwhile mourned the death of Octavio Dotel, a 51-year-old baseball pitcher who won the World Series with the St Louis Cardinals in 2011 and Tony Blanco, 45, who also played in the United States.
President Luís Abinader declared three days of national mourning.
Iris Peña, a survivor, told local television that she made for the door after “dirt started falling like dust” into her drink and then a stone fell and cracked the table where she was sitting. “The impact was so strong, as if it had been a tsunami or an earthquake,” she said.
