Death toll in Colectiv club tragedy reaches 45 while 35 still critical
Nine of the victims in the Colectiv club fire in Bucharest died on Saturday and four passed away on Sunday, more than a week after the tragedy, bringing the death toll to 45. Some 35 of the over 100 people that are still in hospital are in critical condition.
Unlike the 27 victims who died in the night of the fire, on Friday, October 30, who were intoxicated with carbon monoxide, the people who have died in the last two days had multiple organ failures, due to the internal burns and toxic smoke inhaled, according to coroners.
Among the victims who died on Saturday and Sunday were an Italian student and a Turkish student. The Italian student died as she was being transferred to a hospital in Rotterdam, in the Netherlands. The Turkish student died at the Floreasca Emergency Hospital in Bucharest.
About 21 injured have been transferred to other countries to get specialized treatment. Eight patients have been transferred to hospitals in Belgium, eight to the Netherlands, two of whom died, two to Austria, two to Israel, and one to Germany. More people are to be transferred in the following days to other countries, as Romania asked the EU to help it find hospitals in member countries that could treat about 80 victims.
Romania made the appeal to EU’s Civil Protection mechanism on Thursday, six days after the tragedy, after trying to get help from some member states via bilateral talks. NATO also sent a plane on Sunday to help with carrying the patients to clinics abroad.
editor@romania-insider.com