LIMA, July 20 (UPI) -- An early morning fire Saturday at the unlicensed Utopia disco in the Jockey Seat commercial section of the Furrow district in the Peruvian capital killed at least 25 people and injured some 100 others, authorities said.
President Alejandro Toledo said "all the weight of the law" will come down on irresponsible owners who run unlicensed clubs.
The El Comercio newspaper reported authorities believe a worker set a fire during a performance and then was unable to extinguish it. Local reports said a panic broke out, as revelers threw alcohol instead of water on to the flames, causing the fire to spread.
Flames touching the ceiling were reported as an estimated 1,000 people fled, some jumping from the building's second story.
El Comercio said the fire occurred when a disc jockeys set a fire during a performance that included a lion, tiger and chimpanzee, which were killed. The fire jumped to surrounding curtains and quickly spread out of control.
"The fire reached the ceiling and began to catch on, which to most of people seemed to him part of the show," said witness Moisés Gordillo.
The club had only been open for two months and apparently had not been licensed.
"This discoteca does not have a license of construction nor operation. I have at sight a lion and a dead Bengal tiger because they made a spectacle with animals inside," Furrow Mayor Carlos Dargent told the newspaper.
Fire chief Tulio Nicolini said the disco lacked adequate safety measures, including proper emergency exit signs and sprinklers that could have doused the fire. He said the fire was "a disaster waiting to happen."
