SANTO DOMINGO: Rescuers raced to find survivors on Tuesday among the rubble of a Dominican Republic night club where 27 people died and more than 150 were hurt in an early-morning roof collapse.

Some 400 rescue personnel combed through the ruins as trapped people cried out for help from the debris of what was the Jet Set nightclub in Santo Domingo, the Caribbean nation’s capital.

Dozens of ambulances were rushed to the scene to ferry the injured to hospital.

Scores of people gathered at the scene clamouring for news 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 eyewitness reports.

Local media said 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 he did not.

After many desperate hours without news, Zulinka later said she had confirmation that her father was alive, though injured and still trapped in the debris.

Published in Dawn, April 9th, 2025