Horror as 22 people injured after the dancefloor of a gay club collapses
22 people have been injured after the dancefloor of a gay club collapsed.
Fire and rescue services were called to the Butterfly in Playa de las Americas, Tenerife, on the Spanish island’s south coast, at 2.30am Sunday.
A four metre long section of the ground floor caved in as people danced, with debris from the collapse filling the basement.
YouTube footage from the disaster shows steel wires hanging from the ceiling, rubble piled up on the floor and supports propping up what was left of the venue.
A spokesperson said firefighters rescued “several people” who had become trapped at the scene, with 22 party-goers suffering injuries.
Two people are believed to be in a serious condition at hospital, while numerous others have fractures to their legs and ankles.
Victims are thought to be from multiple countries and the UK Foreign Office confirming “a number of British nationals” were among those injured.
One witness told the Bolorino website: “I was at the club called Papagaio which is next door to a gay club called Butterfly, and suddenly a friend of mine comes in screaming ‘Please help me, help me’ and it turns out the club floor had collapsed, broken in half, and people fell with it.
“We saw a whole bunch of people hurt and police everywhere and they closed the main street.
“It was a big disaster, there really were a lot of people hurt and there is no explanation as to why it happened.”
A firefighter spokesman said: “The service was required by a caller who, through the emergency fire brigade coordination centre, reported that part of the floor of a nightclub had collapsed.
“Six firefighting teams were deployed and, once in place, they confirmed that the floor of about four meters in length had collapsed.
“Firefighters were in charge of carrying out inspection and debris removal tasks to rule out whether people were trapped inside.”
