1 week Ago By Adejayan Gbenga
A catastrophic roof collapse at an iconic nightclub in the Dominican Republic’s capital, Santo Domingo, has left at least 98 people dead, including a provincial governor and former Major League Baseball (MLB) pitcher Octavio Dotel, according to reports. At least 160 other people are injured and some 400 emergency crews are still working to find survivors amid the rubble as families of the victims gathered at the site searching for their loved ones, authorities said on Tuesday. “The preliminary death toll has risen to 98,” the director of the country’s Emergency Operations Center, Juan Manuel Mendez, said.
Local media said the roof collapsed during a concert attended by politicians, athletes and other prominent figures. Between 500 and 1,000 people were reported to have been in the club when disaster struck in the early hours of Tuesday. Among the victims was Nelsy Cruz, the governor of the northern Monte Cristi province, President Luis Abinader said.
Cruz is the sister of former baseball player Nelson Cruz, a seven-time MLB All-Star. Former MLB pitcher Dotel died en route to a local hospital after being pulled from the debris, a spokesman for the nation’s Ministry of Sports said. The Dominican Republic’s Professional Baseball League expressed “its sorrow over the death of former pitcher Octavio Dotel” and concluded, “Peace to his soul”.
Dotel, 51, debuted for the New York Mets in 1999 and played until 2013 for more than a dozen teams, including the Houston Astros, Oakland A’s, New York Yankees, Chicago White Sox and Detroit Tigers. “Thinking about our people in the Dominican Republic,” Carlos Mendoza, the manager of the Mets, said in a news conference. “We have a lot of the Dominican community in the baseball world.
” Nearly 150 people have been taken to local hospitals for treatment, according to the government. The cause of the roof collapse remains under investigation. Aljazeera.
