At least 60 people have died in a fire at a disco in a theatre in the Swedish city of Gothenburg, rescue workers said early this morning.
"With the information we have now, there are at least 50 to 60 people dead," one rescue worker, Mr Per Lea said. Thick smoke was pouring from the burning building, he added.
About three hours after the fire was reported, rescue crews had brought about 20 bodies out of the building.
The fire broke out about midnight in the building of the local Macedonian Association, in a discotheque on the second floor.
Mr Jamal Fawz (15) said he was on the dance floor when the blaze started. "It looked like it started in the ceiling, and lamps and loudspeakers fell to the floor," he was quoted as saying.
"It was chaos. Everybody was trying to get out and people trampled on each other on the way to the exit. Others kicked out the windows and jumped out." He estimated there were about 400 people inside.
"We don't have very much information. Many rescue workers and police are at the site," a police spokesman, Mr Age Johansson, said.
Ambulances were called in from several nearby communities and the Goteborg rescue services also brought city buses into service to help transport the injured.
"I would think the total of injured taken from here is about 100; our vehicles have been put into shuttle service," Mr Stefan Pettersson, an ambulance co-ordinator at the scene, said.
More than a hundred firemen and dozens of ambulances were at the scene.