Safety regulations under miscroscope at Bucharest club

The Romanian president says safety regulations could have been ignored at a rock club where a fire killed 27 people on Friday.

The blaze is believed to have started in Bucharest’s Colectiv club when a pyrotechnic display set fire to the stage during a concert by local band Goodbye To Gravity.

Up to 400 people were in the club at the time and more than 140 people remain in hospital. A stampede started after the fire took hold and swept through the venue.

It is now thought that safety rules were not heeded, the BBC reports.

President Klaus Iohannis – who declared three days of national mourning – says: “I am saddened, but also revolted that a tragedy of this scale could have taken place in Bucharest. We already have indications that the legal regulations had not been respected.

“I hope that the authorities manage their inquiry with speed and rigour.”

Goodbye To Gravity are an award-winning five-piece metal band, formed in 2011 by members of Thunderstorm and TV talent search winner Andrei Galut. They’re signed to Universal Records Romania.

Stef wrote close to 5,000 stories during his time as assistant online news editor and later as online news editor between 2014-2016. An accomplished reporter and journalist, Stef has written extensively for a number of UK newspapers and also played bass with UK rock favourites Logan. His favourite bands are Pixies and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. Stef left the world of rock'n'roll news behind when he moved to his beloved Canada in 2016, but he started on his next 5000 stories in 2022.