Update: 245 Die In Brazilian Nightclub Fire After Indoor Fireworks Display Band Performance (Videos)

Appalling loss of life: Firefighters work to douse a fire at the Kiss Club in Santa Maria city, Rio Grande do Sul state, Brazil, where hundreds of people died

At least 245 people have been killed in a Brazil nightclub after a fire ravaged through the building in the early hours of this morning.

Initial reports were that 90 people perished in the blaze, but the death toll has steadily been rising as more bodies have been found in the packed nightclub. It appears to be deadliest nightclub fire for a decade.

While the official cause of the blaze has not been stated, local reports claim it was sparked by a firework set off during a band's performance.

People run to safety and try to rescue others after a massive inferno tore through a Brazil nightclub in the early hours of this morning killing at least 245 people

The total number of victims is still unknown and there may be hundreds injured, civil police and regional government spokesman Marcelo Arigoni told Radio Gaucha.

He told the radio a truck carrying 70 bodies had arrived at the Municipal Sports Centre, which was being used as an improvised morgue.

Police believe there are about 20 bodies still inside the club. At least 200 people have been injured, they said.

Video footage taken during the rescue shows dramatic scenes of local people trying to smash through an outer wall of the club to rescue people.

Sandro Meinerz, spokesman for the police in the city of Santa Maria, 550km from Porto Alegre, southern Brazil, told local media that the fire broke out at the Kiss club while a band was performing.

Firefighters battle to put out the fire which tore through the Kiss Club in Santa Maria, southern Brazil

Emergency services say they feared at least 20 more bodies remained inside the building, and hundreds of others were injured

The cause of the fire is not yet known, however, some media reports claim the blaze was ignited by a firework set off inside the club during the band's performance.

Witnesses said that a flare or firework lit by band members may have started the fire.

Television images showed smoke pouring out of the Kiss nightclub as shirtless, young male partygoers joined firefighters in wielding axes and sledgehammers, pounding at windows and walls to break through to those trapped inside.

Teenagers sprinted from the scene desperately trying to find help - others carried injured and burned friends away in their arms.

'There was so much smoke and fire, it was complete panic and it took a long time for people to get out, there were so many dead,' survivor Luana Santos Silva told the Globo TV network.

Silva added that firefighters and ambulances responded quickly after the fire broke out, but that it spread too fast inside the packed club for them to help.

Rescue: Emergency services filled the street outside the club's entrance as more bodies were pulled from the charred building

Carnage: Locals help evacuate injured victims as clubbers look on in horror following the nightclub fire

 

Michele Pereira, another survivor, told the Folha de S. Paulo newspaper that she was near the stage and that the fire broke out after band members lit flares.

'The band that was on stage began to use flares and, suddenly, they stopped the show and pointed them upward. At that point the ceiling caught fire. It was really weak but in a matter of seconds it spread,' Pereira said.

Civil Police and regional government spokesman Marcelo Arigoni told Radio Gaucha earlier that the total number of victims is still unclear and there may be hundreds injured.

Local newspaper Diario de Santa Maria reported that the fire started at around 2am.

Club security guard, Rodrigo Moura, is quoted in the paper as saying the venue was at maximum capacity of between 1,000 and 2,000. He said partygoers were pushing and shoving to escape.

Overcome: Police, ambulance staff and firefighters helped the victims receive medical assistance in a street outside the Kiss Club

Traumatised: A police officer helps a woman survivor next to the Kiss nightclub in Brazil's Santa Maria

Ezekiel Corte Real, 23, was quoted by the paper as saying he helped people to escape. 'I just got out because I'm very strong,' he said.

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff today cancelled her participation in a regional summit to travel back to Brazil following news of the crisis.

'I want to say to the people of our country and to the people of Santa Maria that at this moment of sadness we are together, and necessarily we will overcome,' said Ms Rousseff told reporters on the sidelines of a summit of Latin American and European leaders, in Chile.

She was close to tears as she spoke and said that the government was 'mobilising resources' to deal with the tragedy.

'Sad Sunday', tweeted Tarso Genro, the governor of the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul. He said all possible action was being taken and that he would be in the city later in the day.

Santa Maria, at the southern tip of Brazil near the borders with Argentina and Uruguay, is a major university city with a population of around a quarter of a million.

Devastation: Relatives of victims cry in the street after news of the fire is made public

Grief-stricken: As news of the tragic blaze reached hundreds of relatives of the victims, they began to arrive at the scene in complete shock

As news of the tragedy was made public, relatives of the victims began to appear at the scene.

Hundreds of shocked and distraught grieving families gathered in the street, but were kept cordoned off away from the charred Kiss club.

The fire appeared to be among the world's deadliest in a nightclub since a 2004 fire killed 194 people at an overcrowded working-class nightclub in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

A blaze at the Lame Horse nightclub in Perm, Russia, broke out in December, 2009, when an indoor fireworks display ignited a plastic ceiling, killing 152.

A nightclub fire in the US state of Rhode Island in 2003 killed 100 people after pyrotechnics used as a stage prop by the 1980s rock band Great White set ablaze cheap soundproofing foam on the walls and ceiling.

And a welding accident reportedly set off a December 2000, fire at a club in Luoyang, China, killing 309.