Toll in N. Macedonia hip-hop gig blaze rises to 59: interior minister

The toll from a fire that ripped through a nightclub in North Macedonia hosting a locally popular hip-hop duo has risen to 59, the Balkan country's interior minister said on Sunday.

"According to the information that we have there are 59 persons deceased of which 35 are identified," Interior Minister Pance Toskovski said at the scene in Kocani, a town some 100 kilometres (60 miles) east of the capital Skopje, where "around 1,500 people attended a concert". He added that arrest warrants for four people had been issued over the blaze.

Authorities had previously given a toll of 51.

"The number of wounded according to latest information up to noon (1100 GMT) is 155 people," Toskovski said.

Thirty-one of the identified dead were residents of Kocani, the eastern town where the concert took place, while another four were from the town of Stip nearby, the minister added.

Toskovski said the wounded were taken to "hospitals around the country".

According to Toskovski the blaze began after the concert's pyrotechnic displays set the ceiling, made of easily flammable material, on fire.

"Central arrest warrants have been issued for four persons," Toskovski said.

. AFP could not immediately confirm this information with the Balkan state's authorities.

The agency reported that the fire broke out in "Pulse", a nightclub in the small town with around 30,000 inhabitants during a concert by DNK, a hip-hop duo popular in the country.

The concert that started at midnight on Sunday was attended mainly by young people.

Online media outlet SDK reported that the fire started at 3 am (0200 GMT), and gave a tally of more than 100 injured, citing rescue sources.

The wounded were taken either to the local Kocani hospital or to Stip, some 30 kilometres south of the town.

Local media speculated that the fire was probably caused by the use of pyrotechnic devices.