Some 400 rescue personnel were at the Jet Set nightclub in the Caribbean nation’s capital Santo Domingo, authorities said, with dozens of ambulances on standby.
Scores of people gathered at the scene clamoring for news on the fate of their missing loved ones, who included renowned Dominican merengue singer Rubby Perez.
Perez, 69, was on stage when there was a sudden blackout and the roof came crashing down, according to video of the incident distributed on social media, in which a woman can be heard crying out: “What happened?”
Local media reported there were between 500 and 1,000 people in the club when disaster struck.
“It was sudden. I thought it was an earthquake, so I threw myself to the ground and covered my head,” Enrique Paulino, Perez’s manager, told reporters.
“One of our saxophonists is dead, we tried to get to the area where Rubby was but there was too much debris there,” he said.
Perez’s daughter Zulinka told reporters she had managed to escape after the roof collapsed but has no news of her father.
“I am desperate. I speak because I understand that people love him… Until now, I was told he was in there (in the nightclub), I don’t know if they have him in an ambulance, because they’re not letting me through,” she told the CDN television chain.
Among the dead was the governor of the Monte Cristi municipality, Nelsy Cruz, who succumbed to her injuries in hospital, according to President Luis Abinader.
“So far we have 27 (dead),” Juan Manuel Mendez, director of the Emergency Operations Center (COE), told journalists.
Ambulances have made 134 trips to hospitals, “which equates to 150 or 160 patients,” he added.
Hope for life
Mendez said rescuers could hear people in the rubble crying out for help.
“As long as there is hope for life, all authorities will be working to recover or rescue these people,” he said.
Dozens of family members flocked to hospitals for news.
“We are desperate,” Regina del Rosa, whose sister was at the concert, told the Dominican channel SIN. “They are not giving us news, they are not telling us anything.”
Local media published images of a construction crane at the scene as men in hard hats dug through the debris.
“We are rescuing all the people we can save alive and recovering those bodies we find along the way. But we have focused on people we can rescue alive because we hear them asking for help,” Mendez said of the ongoing operation.
He said “various institutions that are part of the national emergency center” were working ceaselessly to help those in need.
The initial toll had been 15 dead, later raised to 18.
Abinader said on X the government has “been following the case minute by minute since it happened,” before rushing to the scene himself.
“The main objective is to save lives… We are deeply affected,” he said on his arrival.
“All relief agencies have provided the necessary assistance and are working tirelessly in the rescue efforts,” the president added.
The Instagram page of the Jet Set club said it has been in operation for more than 50 years, with shows on Mondays until the early hours.
Its latest post plugged Monday’s show by Perez, inviting fans to “enjoy his greatest hits and dance in the country’s best nightclub.”
