Dead shoppers 'locked' in
2004-08-02 15:16
Asuncion - Survivors of an inferno in a crowded supermarket said locked doors kept them from escaping the fast-spreading fire that killed 296 people in Paraguay's worst disaster in more than half a century.
Hundreds more were injured, many with serious burns, after the blaze swept through the multilevel Ycua Bolanos supermarket on the outskirts of the capital, Asuncion, while it was crowded with Sunday shoppers.
Attorney General Oscar German LaTorre said 296 people had been killed in Sunday's raging fire during the midday shopping rush. The search for victims resumed at daylight on Monday.
Earlier, Paraguay's Channel 9 reported that 340 bodies had been recovered and that hundreds were injured, citing unofficial accounts by rescue workers and police. Rescue work, suspended during the night, resumed early on Monday.
Officials said it was the worst tragedy in Paraguay since a failed military insurrection in 1947 left about 8 000 people dead.
- AP