LIMA (Reuters) – Peruvian government officials convicted a nightclub owner after at least thirteen other people were crushed or suffocated when revelers tried to flee a party attacked by police for violating restrictions on coronaviruses.
At least six were injured, joined by 3 policemen, as about 120 others tried to escape from the Thomas Restobar club in the Los Olivos community in Lima on Saturday night when police arrived to interrupt the event, which the neighbors had reported, the national police and government officials. said Array
People were trapped between the front door and a staircase leading to the street, authorities said.
Peru ordered the closure of nightclubs and bars in March and banned extended family meetings on August 12 to combat the current rate of COVID-19 infection in Latin America, according to a Reuters account. The Sunday curfew is also in force.
The Interior Ministry blamed the deaths on the “criminal irresponsibility of an unscrupulous businessman” in a statement.
The Minister of Women of Peru, Rosario Sasieta, has asked for serious sanctions for the control of the club that organized the event.
“I’m asking for the maximum penalty for the owners of this place, which was actually irresponsible, and we’re talking about a malicious for-profit murder,” Sasieta told reporters on a stopover on the spot on Sunday morning.
“Knowing that there is a fitness emergency, knowing that even at home you can’t meet parents who don’t live there, do you have the irresponsibility to open a position for 120 people?” Sasieta added.
The owner or managers of Thomas Restobar were not available without delay to comment.
At least 23 revelers have been arrested by police following their investigation, the internal ministry said.
Peru recorded a total of 585236 cases of coronavirus on Saturday, double the number reported on 2 July, while the number of known deaths increased to 27453.
Reporting through Marco Aquino; Written through Cassandra Garrison; Editing by Mark Heinrich and Lisa Shumaker
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