The death toll for the nightclub fire early Sunday morning in southern Brazil now stands at 232, according to the Associated Press. Witnesses say that a flare or firework lit by the band playing at the club could have caused the fire.
Police Maj. Cleberson Braida Bastianello said by telephone that officials counted 232 bodies that had been brought for identification to a gymnasium in the city of Santa Maria, at the southern tip of Brazil near the borders with Argentina and Uruguay.
Another 117 people were being treated at hospitals, he said, and President Dilma Roussef arrived to visit victims after cutting short participation at a Latin American-European summit in Chile.
Bastianello said the recount lowered the toll from 245 earlier believed killed.
