The death toll from the nightclub collapse in the Dominican Republic's capital Santo Domingo has reached 225, with several victims succumbing to their injuries at hospitals this Saturday.
The tragic incident occurred in the early hours of Tuesday during a concert by merengue singer Rubby Perez at the Jet Set nightclub, and the singer was among those killed in the incident, his manager said. His funeral, attended by President Luis Abinader and Latin music icon Juan Luis Guerra, took place on Thursday.
Among the victims, the tragedy took a particularly devastating toll on "Los Dorados," a close-knit group of seniors from the town of Haina who had gathered that night to celebrate decades of friendship.
Seventeen members of "Los Dorados" were at the club, joined by Perez, who also grew up in Haina and had returned to perform for longtime friends.
"It felt like an explosion, a horrifying blast. I didn't walk out. I was hurled outside by the force, thrown like the wind. My friend, I thought she was crushed, broken, because she emerged covered in water and blood. You could hear people wailing, crying for help. My sister was in there," said Ofelia Roy, a survivor of the blast.
Roy was the one who noticed warning signs before the collapse.
"I went to talk to security, told them pieces of the ceiling were falling, that the roof was peeling off. He brushed it off. But it wasn't normal at all. It had started peeling in the morning, and they had been sweeping up the debris. And then, when I turned to check if my sister was behind me, right then, the explosion came," she said.
The collapse also took away three family members' lives of Domingo Guillen, another member of the "Los Dorados."
"At Jet Set, they were going to honor Rubby Perez. But also, my sister was celebrating her birthday. Since she was one of us, he dedicated the party to her, to all of us. I lost two siblings and my brother-in-law," he said.
Jet Set is a popular nightclub in Santo Domingo that regularly hosts dance music concerts on Monday evenings.
Luis Abinader, President of the Dominican Republic, on Tuesday declared three days of national mourning to honor the victims, while an investigation to determine the cause of the deadly collapse is already underway.
Death toll in Dominican nightclub collapse reaches 225
