The protesters ventilate fury after the northern Macedonia disaster

Thousands of people have protested in the city of Kocani in northern Macedonia, demanding justice and action against corruption after a nightclub fire killed 59 people, many of them teenagers.

“No one should die like this, nobody,” a teenager told the BBC. “Those children had a future, they had talents.”

The Pulse nightclub was full of fans who looked at DNK, a popular hip-hop band, when sparks of flares apparently lit a roof patch.

Some 20 people have been arrested for interrogating the disaster, including the owner of the nightclub and some former government ministers.

Many in Kocani believe that corruption had allowed the improvised place to operate with inappropriate security measures.

The relatives of children who are still missing have been queuing outside a hospital to show DNA to help with identification.

Kocani, a city of approximately 25,000 people, is located about 100 km (60 miles) east of the capital, Skopje.

More than 160 people were injured in the fire, including 45 suffering very serious injuries. Many of them have been transferred to hospitals in neighboring Bulgaria, Greece, Serbia and Türkiye to receive specialized treatment.

In the protest manifestation, the uncle of a 19 -year -old man who died said that “those scenes should never be repeated.”

“When there was a war here, it was not as bad as that. Many young people have died.”

After a long time in silence, the crowd began to sing “We are asking for justice!”

The mourners lit candles, hugged and cried, and wrote messages of condolence in the central square.

A group of teenagers pointed to a bar, breaking windows and looting it, believing that it belongs to the owner of the Pulse Club.

The mortal fire began around 02:30 local time (01:30 GMT) on Sunday and extended quickly when the roof was made of flammable material, said Interior Minister Pance Toskovski.

He said there are “reasons for suspected that there is bribery and corruption” linked to fire.

There were 500 people inside the place at that time, well above the capacity for the 250 tickets sold, he said.

The authorities say that the club’s license had been obtained illegally and that the place was a converted carpet warehouse, whose unique emergency exit was blocked at that time.

There were only two fire extinguishers and without fire alarm or sprinkler system, said state prosecutor Ljupco Kocevski.

A civic group in northern Macedonia has asked that people from all over the country meet in the city centers on Tuesday.