At least 66 people have been killed, including the governor and former Major League Baseball (MLB) pitcher Octavio Dotel, the capital of the Dominican Republic.
At least 160 other people were injured and about 400 paramedics were still working to attract survivors from the tile run of tiles.
Juan Manuel Mendes, head of the Dominican Republic’s Centre for Emergency Operations, said efforts continue to rescue people trapped under the fragments, but the exact number of people inside the Jetset Nightclub at the time of the collapse remains unknown.
Local media reported that there were between 500 and 1,000 people at the club when the disaster struck early Tuesday.
The roof collapse occurred during a concert attended by politicians, athletes and other prominent figures.
Among the victims was North Monte Christie governor Nelsy Cruz, President Lewis Abinader said. Cruz is a sister to former baseball player Nelson Cruz, a seven-time MLB All-Star.
Former MLB pitcher Dotel died on his way to a local hospital after being pulled out of the shrapnel, a spokesman for the country’s Ministry of Sports said.
The Dominican Republic’s professional baseball league expressed “sadness over the death of former pitcher Octavio Dotel” and concluded it was “peace to his soul.”
The 51-year-old Dotel made his debut for the New York Mets in 1999 and played for more than 12 teams until 2013, including the Houston Astros, Oakland A, the New York Yankees, the Chicago White Sox and the Detroit Tigers.
“Thinking about our people in the Dominican Republic,” Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said at a press conference. “There are many Dominican communities in the baseball world.”
According to the government, about 150 people have been taken to local hospitals for treatment.
The cause of the roof collapse is under investigation.
“Save a life”
Iris Pena, a woman who attended the concert, told Channel Singh of Dominican that she had fled with her son.
“At one point, the dirt started to fall like dust on the drink on the table. I asked the guard if the ground had shaking,” she said.
“The stones fell and we broke the table where we were and we were out,” Pena said. “The impact was very strong, as if it were a tsunami or an earthquake.”
Dozens of families flocked to the hospital for the news.
“We’re desperate,” Regina Del Rosa, whose sister was at the concert, told Singh. “They don’t give us news. They’re not telling us anything.”
Meanwhile, on the scene, images of the helicopter revealed a large hole in the club’s roof that once existed. The construction crane helped lift up some of the heavier tile ble, just like a man wearing a hard hat dug up a piece of debris.
Authorities issued a call to Dominicans to donate blood.
“We are saving all the people we can live and save, and recovering those bodies we find along the way. But we have been focusing on people who can live and save because we hear them seek help,” Mendes said.
“The main purpose is to save lives,” President Abinader said when he arrived on the scene.
The Jet Set Club Instagram page has been in operation for over 50 years and is showing early until Monday.
On Tuesday, the club issued a statement saying it had “worked completely and transparently with the authorities to help the victims and to clarify what happened.”
The Dominican Republic, which shares Hispaniola Island with Haiti and Haiti, welcomed over 11 million visitors in 2024, according to the Ministry of Tourism.
Tourism generates around 15% of the GDP of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), and visitors are drawn to the country’s Caribbean beaches, music, nightlife, and colonial architecture of Santo Domingo.
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