A Brazilian music venue was the site of a major tragedy over the weekend that claimed hundreds of lives and led to the arrest of two members of a band and the nightclub’s owner after a blaze broke from a pyrotechnics malfunction during a performance from a local band.

News Ltd reports that Police have arrested the owner of Kiss, a nightclub in Santa Maria, and two members of Gurizada Fandangueira, the band that played the venue the same night that 231 people were killed in the fire, injuring another 100 or more people.

Police official Michele Vimmerman said authorities were investigating the blaze, and those in custody include owner Elissandro Sphor and two members of Gurizada Fandangueira, including their vocalist who allegedly set off a flare, setting the ceiling on fire and setting off the inferno.

The nightclub’s patrons were overcome with panic once the fire broke out, rushing for the exits, and Santa Maria fire chief Guido de Molo said people were trampled in the rush to get out, while others perished from smoke suffocation.“It was sheer horror.” – Mattheus Bortolotto, eyewitness

Amidst the tragedy, accusations have surfaced that club security had blocked punters from exiting to prevent people from leaving without paying for their drinks, Police have arrested Kiss’ owner in connection to the accusations, including witnesses saying guards at the club had locked the fire exit.

Dentist Mattheus Bortolotto, a survivor of the incident, told local television, “it was sheer horror.”

“The emergency exits did not work, and then I lost my friend in the confusion. Then a girl died in my arms. I felt her heart stop beating,” he recalls. “The metal barriers they used to keep people in line on their way in, ended up blocking people from getting out,” Bortolotto said.

“People were bumping into each other, crushing each other, falling down. And the people who were at the back of the club were simply trapped.”

There was complete panic as people attempted to flee the death trap, fire fighters found bodies in the bathrooms of the venue of victims mistaking them for an emergency exit, while the main entrance was allegedly cluttered with bodies of those trying to escape the flames.“Guitarist Rodrigo Martins says the band had ‘played around five songs when I looked up and noticed the roof was burning.'”

According to BBC NewsGurizada Fandangueira’s guitarist Rodrigo Martins says the band had “played around five songs when I looked up and noticed the roof was burning.” He says that ‘the Sputnik’ “the the machine we use to create a luminous effect with sparks,” was the cause of the malfunction, but “when the fire started, a guard passed us a fire extinguisher, the singer tried to use it but it wasn’t working.”

Fire fighters are saying that the faulty extinguisher, the lack of necessary emergency exits, and the fact that Kiss’ safety license had expired in August, meant that the nightclub’s proprietors were up for criminal allegations, leading to the police placing the owner and two members of the band into custody.

Brazil observed three days of national mourning in the wake of the tragedy, with the death toll reaching 231, as friends and family in the southern university town of Santa Maria more the lives of those claimed in the inferno. Another 100 remain hospitalised, with 80 or more in a serious condition.

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, cut short he appearance the Europe-Latin America summit in Chile to fly to Santa Maria. “It’s a tragedy for all of us, and I cannot continue here at the summit, because my priority is the Brazilian people,” Ms Rousseff told reporters in transit.

Federal and local authorities were mobilizing “all resources, so that we do not just recover the bodies but also support families at this time and provide very efficient care to the injured,” she added.

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