Dozens Die In Swedish Disco

A fire turned a dance hall jammed with teenage Halloween revelers into a deathtrap. At least 60 people, most of them teens, were killed, some trampled in a frantic struggle to escape.

Another 180 were injured, some seriously, in the blaze that broke out around midnight Thursday in the Macedonian Association building in the southwest coastal city of Goteborg. Some of the most seriously injured were airlifted to burn centers in other areas of the country.

The cause was not immediately known, but officials said there had been an explosion. First reports speculated that arson was involved but officials now are saying the cause may have been accidental. Electrical and lighting systems are being checked for clues to the explosion.

Most of the people at the dance were between the ages of 13 and 18, officials said.

CBS News Correspondent Maggie Cooper reports that it was the deadliest fire in Swedish history.

At a news conference Thursday, police said most victims choked to death on smoke and poisonous gases. The injured included seven people who were taken to burn treatment centers for emergency care.

About 300 or 400 people were inside, police said. Many escaped on their own. Police rescued 40, and recovered 59 bodies. The 60th victim died at a hospital.

"It was a panic," Goteborg police spokesman Bengt Staaf said, with youths trampling each other to get out and others scuffling with police to get in and attempt to help friends.

The source of the fire was under investigation. "What we know is that there was an explosion," said another police official, Jan Edmundson.

Survivors recalled hearing an explosion just before the lamps and loud speakers began to fall from the ceiling. A 15-year-old witness described the scene as chaos, saying people trampled one another in a desperate rush to the only exit. Others jumped out windows.

Outside the burning building, teens were searching for their missing friends.

The immigrant association allowed the building to be used for the dance, police said, but did not organize it specifically as an activity for its community.

Fire officials were alerted at 11:43 p.m. Thursday and had a fire truck at the scene minutes later, rescue workers said today. The blaze was already consuming the two-story brick building. The dance was held on the building's second floor.

By this morning, forensics experts were sifting through the charred building in search of clues.

The building had been inspected by the rescue service in April 1997 and "fulfilled all possible demands as far as emergency exits and the possibility for fast evacuation," Olin said.

Anna-Lisa Saar, a social worker at Oestra Hospital, where many of the victims were taken, said identifying the bodies will be difficult because many of the teen-agers weren't carrying proper identification.

"They maybe don't have their own identification, but hav that of a friend who is a year older. Girls don't carry their identification on them, but in a bag and maybe that wasn't lying with the body," she said, according to TT.

Goteborg is Sweden's second-largest city, on the country's west coast about 300 miles southwest of Stockholm.

"A night full of expectation, happiness over extra leave from school and high spirits in anticipation of a weekend was brutally and suddenly changed into a tragedy of incomprehensible dimensions," the Goteborg city council said in a statement.

"Goteborg is today a city in shock." Flags were at half-satff across the country Friday.