245 dead in nightclub inferno

Fire-fighters try to extinguish a fire at Kiss nightclub in the southern city of Santa Maria, 187 miles (301 km) west of the state capital of Porto Alegre, in this picture taken by Agencia RBS, Jan27, 2013. [Photo/Agencies]

Flare used by band ignites ceiling as youths stampede to the only exit.

At least 245 people were killed in a nightclub fire in southern Brazil on Sunday after a band's pyrotechnics show set the establishment ablaze, local officials said.

Bodies were still being removed from the Kiss nightclub in the southern city of Santa Maria, Major Gerson da Rosa Ferreira, who was leading rescue efforts at the scene for the military police, told Reuters.

The cause of the fire has not yet been confirmed, officials said. The total number of victims is still unclear and there may be hundreds injured, Civil Police and regional government spokesman Marcelo Arigoni told Radio Gaucha.

Arigoni told the radio station a truck carrying 70 bodies had arrived at the Municipal Sports Center, which was being used as an improvised morgue.

Ferreira, the Major, said 159 bodies had been removed, and the death toll was likely to rise above 200. He said the victims died of asphyxiation or from being trampled, and there were as many as 500 people inside the club when the fire broke out.

Luiza Sousa, a civil police official in Santa Maria, said the blaze started when a member of the band or its production team ignited a flare, which then set fire to the ceiling. The fire spread "in seconds", Sousa said.

The fire developed fast and there was only one exit, which caused some trampling as partygoers tried to escape.

Rodrigo Moura, whom the Brazilian newspaper Diario de Santa Maria identified as a security guard at the club, said it was at its maximum capacity of between 1,000 and 2,000, and partygoers were pushing and shoving to escape. Ezekiel Corte Real, 23, was quoted by the paper saying he helped people escape. "I just got out because I'm very strong," he said.

Rio Grande do Sul state Health Secretary Ciro Simoni said respirators from all over the state were being sent to the scene. Santa Maria is some 300 km west of the state capital of Porto Alegre. "A sad Sunday!" tweeted Rio Grande do Sul Governor Tarso Genro. He said "all possible measures" were being taken and that he was on his way to the scene.

Santa Maria is located at the southern tip of Brazil near the borders with Argentina and Uruguay. It is a major university city with a population of around a quarter of a million.