video transcript

It's likely that at least 200 people were killed in a night-club fire in southern Brazil on Sunday after a band's pyrotechnics show set the building ablaze, according to local officials. A military police official said that recovery workers were taking on the harrowing task of removing bodies from the Kiss night-club in the city of Santa Maria. He added that 159 bodies had already been removed, and that most of those who died were killed by asphyxiation or from being trampled. As many as 500 people were inside the club when the fire broke out. The blaze was started when a member of the band or its production team ignited a flare, which then set fire to the ceiling.