Survivors recount horror, panic

Television images showed smoke pouring out of the Kiss nightclub as shirtless, young male party-goers 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.

"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 the fire spread too fast in the packed club for anybody to be able to help.

Michele Pereira, another survivor, told the Folha de S. Paulo newspaper "the band that was onstage 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.

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