Three held over Brazil Club Fire

Relatives consoling themselves

Brazilian police have arrested three people in connection with a fire at a nightclub that killed 231 people in the southern city of Santa Maria on Sunday.

An owner of the Kiss nightclub, a member of the band Gurizada Fandangueira, and its security chief were being questioned, police said. A fourth person, reported to be a co-owner of the club, is being sought, reports the BBC.

More than 50 of the victims are being buried on Monday. Brazil has declared three days of national mourning.

The country's deadliest fire in five decades reportedly started after a member of Gurizada Fandangueira, which was performing at the venue, lit a flare on stage.

Officials are also investigating claims that many of those who died were unable to escape as only one emergency exit was available.

The BBC's Gary Duffy reports from Sao Paulo that the national sense of loss is profound. Most of the victims were students who died of smoke inhalation.

The government postponed a ceremony scheduled for Monday in the capital, Brasilia, to mark 500 days to the 2014 football World Cup. In Santa Maria, 30 days of mourning were declared.

President Dilma Rousseff, who cut short a visit to Chile, has been visiting survivors at the city's Caridade hospital along with government ministers.

"It is a tragedy for all of us," she said.

Authorities released the names of the victims, after revising down the death toll from 245.

More than 100 people were being treated in hospital, mostly for smoke inhalation.

The fire broke out as students from the Federal University of Santa Maria (UFSM) were holding a freshers' ball, the Diario de Santa Maria, a local newspaper, reported.

A local journalist, Marcelo Gonzatto, told the BBC that the flare had "started a huge and fast fire that grew quickly and made a very dark and heavy smoke".

"Lots of people couldn't get out and died mainly because of the smoke not the fire," he said.

Witnesses spoke of scenes of panic after the fire started, and a stampede as people tried to escape.

One, Mattheus Bortolotto, told local television: "It was sheer horror. The emergency exits did not work, and then I lost my friend in the confusion. Then a girl died in my arms. I felt her heart stop beating."

-culled from BBC