Death toll in the collapse of the roof of the Dominican Republic Shots 218

The number of people who died in a collapse of the roof in a disco in the Dominican Republic jumped to 218, said the officials on Thursday, recognizing that the rescuers no longer had any hope of finding someone alive.

The roof in one of the Dominican Republic more popular discos, jet set, Hidden on Tuesday early during a concert.

Emergency management officials repeatedly refused to indicate how many people were within the club, which had a capacity of 700 to 1,000 people and was particularly popular on Monday evening.

Juan Manuel Méndez, director of the emergency operating center, said that officials were “triangulating” the number of tickets sold with the number of people at the morgue and local hospitals.

He said 189 people were saved in the disaster. He did not say how many tickets were sold and representatives of the disco refused to answer questions.

“This is so bad,” said Méndez, observing that he would resize the number of rescuers.

On Wednesday evening, the authorities announced that the operation would officially pass from the research and rescue to the recovery of the bodies.

The over 300 rescuers had “all the reasonable possibilities exhausted“In finding anyone who was alive, the government said in a statement. The declaration stressed that the excavation for the bodies would continue.

“We are not abandoning anyone,” said Mr. Méndez.

On Monday evening at the Jet Set it was a tradition of decades in Santo Domingo, popular between athletes, politicians and the class-and Business this was reflected in the victims: a governor died, as well as a family of important bankers and two former baseball players of the Major League.

The body of the merengue singer who performed, Rubby Pérez, He was pulled out of the wreck on Wednesday morning.

Hogla Enecia Pérez Contributed relationships.