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By Paul Mathiasen
SANTO DOMINGO (Reuters) -A devastating roof collapse at a popular nightclub in the capital of the Dominican Republic has claimed at least 184 lives, authorities said late on Wednesday, as the search for survivors turned increasingly grim.
The nightclub collapsed on Tuesday and for two days families have gathered outside the wreckage of the Jet Set club in Santo Domingo, anxious for information about their missing relatives and sharing photos with police.
"We are not going to abandon nobody," Juan Manuel Mendez, head of the country's emergency operations center, said at a press conference.
Emergency crews will continue to work until the last body will be found, but hopes of finding more survivors under the rubble were diminishing while no one had been pulled out alive in more than 24 hours, Mendez added.
"In the coming hours there will be a transition from a search and rescue phase to the recovery of the bodies phase," presidential spokesperson Homero Figueroa said in a statement.
Families continued to hold out hope. Along with dozens of others, Alex de Leon was looking for his ex-wife, mother of their two children, and a close mutual friend at the area surrounding the nightclub.
"Unfortunately I don't have any information about where they are," he said. "My 15 year-old son is devastated, and the little one who is 9 remains calm because we've told him that his mom is at work."
Relatives and friends of people who are still missing held their photos and described the clothes they were wearing when the tragedy struck, hoping that it will help identify their loved ones if they were disfigured.
Earlier on Wednesday authorities reported that 155 people had been rescued from the rubble and transferred to hospitals. The exact number of people inside the club at the time of the collapse remained unclear.
FROM CELEBRATION TO TRAGEDY
The tragedy unfolded during a concert by popular Dominican singer Rubby Perez. The event, which had drawn politicians, athletes and other prominent figures, turned into a nightmare after midnight as the roof suddenly collapsed.
Perez was one of the victims and the Ministry of Culture announced it will hold a tribute on Thursday to honor his memory as "one of the great figures of the country's art" and the merengue scene.
The families of the victims whose bodies have already been recovered have begun to hold their funerals.
President Luis Abinader attended the funeral ceremony on Wednesday of Nelsy Cruz, governor of the northern Monte Cristi province and sister of former MLB player Nelson Cruz, a seven-time All-Star.
"We are left to mourn her and the other victims," Abinader said during the service.
Pitcher Octavio Dotel and slugger Tony Blanco, both former Major League Baseball players, were also killed.
The son of the public works and communications minister also died in the disaster.
(Reporting by Paul Mathiasen, Additional reporting by Erika Santelices; Writing by Aida Pelaez-Fernandez and Natalia Siniawski; Editing by Mark Porter and Stephen Coates)
