Two former Major League Baseball players and a provincial governor are among the rising toll of dead following the collapse of a nightclub roof in the Caribbean nation of the Dominican Republic in the early hours of Tuesday.
The toll had risen to 113 deaths Wednesday morning local time as rescuers raced to find survivors at the popular Jet Set nightclub in the capital, Santo Domingo, The New York Times reports.
The roof came down at around 12.45am Tuesday during the club’s Monday dance night, a live-music fixture in Dominican society for decades, according to the newspaper.
The sudden collapse hurt so many people that ambulances had to take two or three to hospital at a time, said the Times.
Octavio Dotel, 51, pitched for 13 teams during his 15-year Major League career. He died en route to hospital.
Tony Blanco, 45, appeared in 56 games for the Washington Nationals in 2005, and later played in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball league. He was confirmed dead on Tuesday.
Also dead is Nelsy M. Cruz Martínez, the governor of the Dominican province of Monte Cristi.
The Times reports that she called the country’s president, Luis Abinader, while she was trapped in the rubble at 12:49am, but died later in hospital.
Several members of the Dominican Congress are also thought to have been inside the club when the roof collapsed.
The building was around 50 years old and had previously been a cinema, Carlos Mendoza Díaz, president of the Dominican Association of Engineers, Architects and Surveyors, told the Times.
“We also know that a fire occurred a few years ago, and perhaps the combination of these events could have caused the collapse,” he said.
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