At least 59 people died and more than 150 were injured in the inferno. The authorities said the venue’s hospitality permit had been issued illegally.
As families of victims mourned the loss of loved ones and kept an anxious vigil in hospitals on Monday, the authorities in North Macedonia said they were investigating possible official misconduct in the case of a deadly inferno that killed at least 59 people.
Officials said that Club Pulse, the nightclub where the fire broke out early Sunday, was operating with an illegally issued license document, and that it lacked proper escape routes. The building’s roof was set ablaze by fireworks used during a concert, officials have said. At least 155 people were injured in the inferno that swept through the venue.
“I will have no mercy,” Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski said on Sunday, adding, “There is no person in Macedonia who is not broken and with a destroyed spirit after this.”
Mr. Mickoski, who took power in June, said the club, which was in Kocani, about 50 miles east of the capital, Skopje, had a license document that had been issued “for a bribe.” He said the document bore the seal of the economic ministry and the signatures of former officials there, and that it was “issued illegally.”
“This is the culmination of a bad, neglected system,” Mr. Mickoski said, describing North Macedonia’s effort to root out corruption, which the European Commission described in a 2024 report as a “serious concern” in the country.
The building that housed Club Pulse was registered as an industrial facility — not a hospitality venue — but had still received a hospitality permit from the economy ministry, the public prosecutor, Ljupco Kocevski, said on Sunday.