BUCHAREST, Romania—Seven more people succumbed to burn-related injuries on Saturday, just over a week after a fire broke out in a Bucharest nightclub, authorities said, bringing the death toll in the tragedy to 39.
Many in Romania have blamed lax government safety standards for the deadly blaze. Prime Minister Victor Ponta and his Cabinet resigned Wednesday after mass protests.
Adrian Stanculea, spokesman for the state burns hospital, said three men died at that facility on Saturday, while the manager at University Hospital, Catalin Cirstoiu, said a man there died of his injuries.
Raed Arafat, an emergency situations official, said two patients who had been sent to the Netherlands for specialized burns treatment had died, including a 20-year-old Italian woman. Eight patients were transported by military plane to the Netherlands for treatment, he said.
Interim Prime Minister Sorin Campeanu said a patient at the Floreasca emergency hospital in Bucharest also succumbed to his injuries.
Campeanu said earlier that 109 other people still remain hospitalized, 48 of them in serious or critical condition, from the Oct. 30 blaze that erupted at the Colectiv basement nightclub during a heavy metal concert. Panicked people fled for the sole exit in a stampede, leaving 180 injured.
