Search, rescue and recovery operations in Santo Domingo, the capital of the Dominican Republic, ended on Thursday after the roof of a crowded nightclub collapsed during a concert on Monday night, authorities announced, according to which the final death toll reached 221 dead.
As the country remains in mourning and families bury their loved ones, authorities admit they have yet to determine exactly how many people were inside the Jet Set club when its roof collapsed, and it is not yet clear why. Initially, they said between five hundred and a thousand.
Politicians, athletes and celebrities had gathered at the concert at this center.
"Today the search, rescue and recovery operation for the victims has ended," presidential spokesman Omar Figueroa said in a video uploaded to social media.
"Now it's time to move to the next phase, which is to understand and explain what happened," he said.
The Government of the Dominican Republic announced that it has approved the formation of a committee of experts, local and foreign, to determine the causes of the collapse of the roof of the popular club, Mr. Figueroa added.
Search and rescue teams, who were on the scene as of yesterday morning (local time), were able to pull almost 200 people alive in the hours following the disaster.
Juan Manuel Mendes, the head of the emergency operations center (COE), admitted yesterday that "this was the most difficult mission I have had to carry out in the 20 years I have been leading" the COE, before interrupting the press conference, unable to hold back his tears.
After the rescue teams' operation ended, families of missing people, who had remained in the area for days, hugging and supporting each other, began to leave.
Ruby Perez, a merengue music star who was performing at the nightclub, lost his life when the collapse occurred.
Two former Major League Baseball (MLB) players were also killed.
Dominican Republic President Luis Abinader was present at the artist's funeral yesterday.
Source: KYPE
