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             Friday, October 30, 1998 Published at 02:46 GMT


             World: Europe

             Fifty feared dead in Swedish
             disco fire

             The fire was described as "catastrophic"

             At least 50 people are feared dead and about 100 have
             been wounded in the Swedish city of Gothenburg, after a
             fire broke out in a disco.

             "With the information we have now, there are at least 50
             to 60 people dead," said rescue worker Per Lea.

             Superintendent Ann Granfors told the BBC the figure is
             expected to rise.

             "The fire is not yet under control so we expect that figure
             to grow even higher," she said.

             Correspondents describe the scene as chaotic, as the
             building was still on fire, more than three hours after the
             fire broke out.

             Eyewitness account

             The fire broke out at midnight, local time (2300 GMT), in
             a building where the local Macedonian Cultural
             Association was having a party.

             Fifteen-year-old Jamal Fawz who was in the disco said
             the fire seemed to have started from the ceiling, as
             "lamps and loudspeakers fell to the floor."

             "It was chaos. Everybody was trying to get out and
             people trampled on each other on the way to the exit...
             Others kicked out the windows and jumped out," he
             said.

             The cause of the fire was not immediately known.

             Several hundred people were believed to have been in the
             brick building when the fire broke out, in a second floor
             discotheque.

             Gothenburg is Sweden's second-largest city, on the
             country's west coast about 500km southwest of the
             capital Stockholm.