At least thirteen other people were killed or suffocated after revelers at a nightclub in the Peruvian capital Lima tried to flee when police stormed the collapse for violating restrictions to combat the coronavirus pandemic. Six other people were injured, joined by three policemen, when about 120 people tried to escape the Thomas Restobar club on Saturday night. The police had arrived to prevent the party from taking place on the same ground as the club after neighbors alerted the police to the occasion in the Los Olivos district of the Peruvian capital.
In a statement, Orlando Velasco of the National Police told local broadcaster RPP: “In those circumstances, when other people fight to get out, it’s tumultuous, everyone gets opposed.” According to the Interior Ministry, the revelers tried to sneak through the club’s front door when police arrived and found the semen wedged between the door and a staircase leading to the street. Among the thirteen affected were 11 men and 2 women between the ages of 20 and 30. Up to 23 revelers were arrested, the ministry added.
The Interior Ministry also said that the club’s homeowners, a married couple, had also been arrested on Sunday. Peru’s Minister of Women Rosario Sasieta has asked the club’s homeowners for harsh sanctions. She told reporters Sunday morning on a stopover at the site: “I’m asking for the maximum penalty for the owners of this post, which has actually been irresponsible, and we’re talking about a malicious for-profit murder.” Sasieta added: “Knowing that there is a fitness emergency, knowing that even at home you can’t meet relatives who don’t live there, you have the irresponsibility to open a position for 120 people?”
Peru’s nightclubs and bars were ordered to close in March, and the government banned extended family gatherings in the country on August 12 after the COVID-19 outbreak. Peru is the country at the peak affected by the coronavirus pandemic on the South American continent with 5,94326 instances and 27663 deaths. The Latin American country is also the sixth-highest in the world for the highest rate of COVID-19 infection, and the government also applies a curfew on Sundays.