Santo Domingo:
On Tuesday, at least 79 people were killed after a roof collapsed at a nightclub in Santo Domingo, the capital of the Dominican Republic. About 155 people were also injured in a disastrous incident at the jet set a nightclub, where emergency crew was working after night to pull people from the debris.
According to Juan Manual Mendez, head of the Emergency Operations Center of Dominican Republic, the exact number of people inside the club was not clear at the time of collapse. However, local media reported that the club had 500 and 1,000 people, when the disaster occurred soon at 12:44 pm.
The club has a capacity of 700 people and stands around 1,000 people.
The victims included a popular singer, a provincial governor and two former Major League baseball players, the officials said.
Videos of the incident suggest that the famous Dominican Merangue singer Rube Perez was performing, performing, when the roof imprisoned in no time after midnight. According to his manager and family members near the site, he was one of the victims.
58 Jet set in the Republic of Dominican killed in the fall of the roof of the night club such as the death toll increases pic.twitter.com/c6hn7zch8c
– RT (@RT_COM) April 8, 2025
Perez’s manager Enric Palino told reporters, “It was sudden. I felt that it was an earthquake, so I threw myself on the ground and covered my head.”
“One of our saxophoneists is dead. We tried to go to the area where Rubbi was, but there was a lot of debris,” he said.
Perez’s daughter, Zulinka, told reporters that she managed to escape after the roof collapsed, but she was not. He said he confirmed that his father was “alive”, though injured and still trapped.
The dead also had politicians, athletes and other major figures. Monte Christie’s Governor Nelsi Cruise, who was the sister of former baseball player Nelson Cruz, who was also a seven-time MLB all-star victims, said President Louis Abinadar.
Former MLB players Octavio Dotel and Tony Blanco also died in collapse, local authorities confirmed. A spokesman for the country’s sports ministry said that fifty-one-year-old dotl, who won a world series in 2011 with St. Louis Cardinals, died in a local hospital after being pulled from the rubble.
Rescue efforts are going on
More than 370 rescue personnel combined for the remaining bricks, steel bar and tin sheets mounds, while dozens of ambulances were injured in the hospital. Helicopter images revealed a large hole where the club’s roof was once.
🇩🇴 Decline in death toll from a nightclub ceiling #SANTODOMINGOThe Republic of Dominican has increased to 79. pic.twitter.com/9kxzf2Q1CN
– Hamdan News (@Hamdanahe57839) 9 April, 2025
A crane was helping to lift some heavy debris because the male in the hard hat dug through the debris. Meanwhile, the families of the victims gathered near the Jet Set Night Club, seeking information about their loved ones.
The 17-season Major League baseball player Pedro Martinez said in a video shared on his Instagram account in the evening, “I still have family members who are still in the debris, and we don’t know what happened to him.”
President Abinadar visited the scene and announced a three -day national mourning.
The Instagram page of the Jet Set Club said it has been operating for more than 50 years, with the show for the initial hours every Monday. Before Monday’s program, its last post invited fans to arrive and “enjoy the biggest hit and dance in the country’s best nightclub.”
On Tuesday, the club issued a statement stating that it was working “completely and transparent” with the authorities.
According to the Ministry of Tourism, the Dominican Republic, which shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti, received more than 11 million visitors in 2024.
Tourism produces about 15 percent of GDP, in which visitors are attracted by their Caribbean beaches, music and nightlife, as well as the colonial architecture of Santo Domingo.
(With input from agencies)