Toll In N. Macedonia Hip-hop Gig Blaze Rises To 59: Interior Minister

Faizan Hashmi Published March 16, 2025 | 11:50 PM

Skopje, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 16th Mar, 2025) The toll from a fire that ripped through a nightclub in North Macedonia hosting a locally popular hip-hop duo has risen to 59, the Balkan country's interior minister said on Sunday.

"According to the information that we have there are 59 persons deceased of which 35 are identified," Interior Minister Pance Toskovski said at the scene in Kocani, adding that arrest warrants for four people had been issued over the blaze.

Authorities had previously given a toll of 51.

"The number of wounded according to latest information up to noon (1100 GMT) is 155 people," Toskovski said.

Thirty-one of the dead were residents of Kocani, the eastern town where the concert took place, or the town of Stip nearby, the minister added.

Toskovski said the wounded were taken to "hospitals around the country".

According to Toskovski the blaze began after the concert's pyrotechnic displays set the ceiling, made of easily flammable material, on fire.

"Central arrest warrants have been issued for four persons," Toskovski said.