A police officer helps a woman next to Kiss nightclub in the southern city of Santa Maria, 187 miles (301 km) west of the state capital of Porto Alegre, in this picture taken by Agencia RBS, January 27, 2013. At least 200 people were killed in the nightclub fire in southern Brazil on Sunday after a band’s pyrotechnics show set the building ablaze, and fleeing patrons were unable to find the emergency exits, local officials said. Bodies were still being removed from the Kiss nightclub in the southern city of Santa Maria, Major Gerson da Rosa Ferreira, who was leading rescue efforts at the scene for the military police, told Reuters.
Local officials said 180 people were confirmed dead, and Ferreira said the death toll would rise above 200. He said the victims died of asphyxiation, or from being trampled, and that there were possibly as many as 500 people inside the club when the fire broke out at about 2:30 a.m. REUTERS/Germano Roratto/Agencia RBS (BRAZIL – Tags: DISASTER TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY) ATTENTION EDITORS – THIS IMAGE WAS PROVIDED BY A THIRD PARTY. NO SALES. NO ARCHIVES. FOR EDITORIAL USE ONLY. NOT FOR SALE FOR MARKETING OR ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS. THIS PICTURE IS DISTRIBUTED EXACTLY AS RECEIVED BY REUTERS, AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTS. BRAZIL OUT. NO COMMERCIAL OR EDITORIAL SALES IN BRAZIL