This aerial view shows rescue teams working at the nightclub a day after the collapse of its roof in Santo Domingo. Photo: ALFRED DAVIES
The death toll after a roof collapsed at a crowded nightclub in the Dominican Republic has climbed to 218.
Rescuers had worked frantically since the collapse in the early hours of Tuesday to dig out survivors from the rubble of the popular Jet Set club in Santo Domingo.
"Unfortunately and with regret, (there are) 218 people dead as preliminary data," Juan Manuel Mendez, director of the Emergency Operations Center (COE), told reporters on Thursday.
He said that 189 people had been "rescued alive" since the collapse.
More than 500 people were injured in the incident. Up to 1000 people could have been inside the club at the time of the accident, local media has reported, though no official figure has been given yet.
Personnel from civil defense and firefighters work at the Jet Set nightclub following the collapse of its roof in Santo Domingo on 8 April 2025. Photo: FRANCESCO SPOTORNO / AFP
The incident marks the Caribbean nation's worst disaster in decades.
"Our rescue workers are already concluding the search," Mendez said.
"We are saddened by this tragedy that has so saddened the Dominican people."
Authorities ruled out the possibility of finding any more survivors late on Wednesday.
The government said it would open an inquiry into the disaster as soon as the rescue operations had been completed.
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.
A woman checks the lists with the names of the victims outside the Jet Set nightclub following the collapse of its roof in Santo Domingo on 8 April 2025. Photo: FRANCESCO SPOTORNO / AFP
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.
Singer among those killed
Among the dead were famed merengue singer Rubby Perez, who was performing on stage as the roof caved in, as well as two former Major League Baseball players and a local politician.
A video posted on social media showed the venue suddenly plunged into darkness while Perez was singing.
Tributes to the singer, known for hits such as "Volvere" and "Enamorado de Ella," poured in from across Latin America.
The baseball world 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.
The Dominican Republic's president, Luis Abinader, declared three days of national mourning.
Relatives were still waiting for news of their loved ones on Wednesday outside the ruined club, at hospitals and at the local morgue.
Antonio Hernandez, whose son worked at the Jet Set nightclub, told the AFP news agency on Wednesday his hopes of finding his son alive had begun fading as he watched more bodies, but no survivors, being retrieved.
The remains in one body bag resembled his son's height and build, Hernandez said, but he did not investigate.
"I don't have the stomach to find out the worst yet," he said.
- AFP
