About 10,000 people participated on Sunday in a march paying tribute to the victims of the fire that took grip of the Bucharest Colectiv club on Friday evening.
More than 5,000 people set off from University Square to the site of the tragedy, and 600 people took off from Unirii Square, as other groups joined the stream of mourners underway.
The participants, most of them young, were dressed in black and carried flowers and candles which they placed on the sidewalk before the club. Their homage thus added to the piles of wreaths and flowers people have been laying there for two days now.
There’s a more than 30 sq.m. wide carpet of burning candles and lights on the sidewalk, bearing testimony to the compassion and tearful thoughts of the Bucharesters; icons, photos, wreaths and soft toys complete the emotional picture.
A 20-year old girl says this is a club she frequently used to go to and that on Friday evening, when she learned of the tragedy, the first thought that crossed her mind was that she too could have been among the victims.
“We could have been there too. This is terrible! There isn’t much we can do now. We can only hope that a flower and a candle can help at least a bit, bring some solace to the grieving families. On that night, we were all together, we just wanted to step out when the phones started ringing, desperate parents inquiring if we were alive, if we were OK,” she says, adding that she never felt unsafe in the Colectiv club, and admits that other night clubs leave even more to be desired, as they have insufficiently wide exits and are ill-fitted with firefighting equipment. More…
