(18 Mar 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Skopje, North Macedonia – 18 March 2025
++NIGHT SHOTS++
1. Various of silent protest, crowd holding phone torches
2. Various of candle tribute
3. SOUNDBITE (Macedonian) Zoran Jovanovski, pensioner:
"The solution is very hard. There needs to be a change in mentality of people. If we change the mentality, then other people will be in charge in our politics. And then there would be a different way to run this country."
9. Close of candles
STORYLINE:
Thousands attended a silent night vigil in Skopje, North Macedonia’s capital, commemorating the 59 people that died in a tragic fire at a nightclub on Sunday.
Attendees held up phone torches as they stood in silence, with others were laying flowers and lighting candles in tribute.
North Macedonia is grappling with the loss of dozens of young lives in Sunday’s nightclub inferno in the eastern town of Kocani, and trying to hold those responsible to account and prevent another calamity.
Authorities were investigating allegations of bribery surrounding the fire in the nightclub, which was crammed with young revelers and at double capacity. Kocani’s mayor resigned Monday over the emerging scandal.
Fire tore through the overcrowded Club Pulse during a live concert, leaving 59 people dead and more than 150 injured from burns, smoke inhalation and being trampled in the panicked rush toward the building’s single exit.
People are demanding accountability from the authorities following revelations that the club was operating under a forged permit.
"The solution is very hard," said Zoran Jovanovski, an attendee at the silent protest.
"There needs to be a change in mentality of people. If we change the mentality, then other people will be in charge in our politics. And then there would be a different way to run this country," Jovanovski added.
Bribes to authorities to skip licensing requirements and skirt safety regulations are commonplace in North Macedonia, practices that have caught the attention of Western governments.
AP video shot by Florent Bajrami
Production: Amer Cohadzic
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