Grenade blast kills 17 during huge brawl in Venezuelan nightclub

At least 17 people have suffocated to death at a nightclub in Caracas after a person activated a tear gas grenade inside the building during a brawl, Venezuelan officials say.

More than 500 people had been attending a party at the Los Cotorros club in the middle-class neighbourhood of El Paraiso when the device was detonated during a fight amongst a group of young people, interior minister Nestor Reverol told state television. He said authorities had arrested seven people in connection with the incident and an investigation was underway.

Eight of those who died had been under the age of 18, Mr Reverol said, adding five of the people injured in the blast had also been minors.The explosion had caused a stampede and it is unclear at this who died as a result of the brawl or being trampled, but at least 11 people suffocated to death when the gas filled the club's confined space, said Noris Villanueva, an autopsy assistant at the local Perez Carreno Hospital.

“The government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, led by president Nicolas Maduro, deplores this unfortunate event. We send our condolences to the families,” Mr Reverol said. "The establishment has been ordered closed, and we are investigating in coordination with the public ministry, which is directing the criminal investigation," he added.

The blast is thought to have taken place at around 3am on Saturday morning. Photos shared online from previous celebrations at the club show a dark interior with wooden tables and a stage upfront where DJs shuffled songs. Metal bars covered the doors and windows.

The club, a two-story red brick building, appeared deserted later on Saturday morning with no form of police presence outside.

“We haven't received a response from anybody, neither from the police nor the doctors,” Nilson Guerra, the father of one victim, said at the hospital. He only knew his 19-year-old son Luis had died because he had seen him in the morgue. Another son of his had been hospitalised.

Julio Cesar Perdomo, whose son was injured at the club, told the Associated Press that his son saw at least one cannister of the tear gas thrown from a bathroom. The club staff then closed off the exits to the building, essentially trapping people inside, according to Mr Perdomo's son.

Police have detained the owner of the club for "not guaranteeing adequate supervision and preventing the entry of any type of weapon," but no details have been released about his identity or if he has been charged with a specific crime. They have also not confirmed whether the exit doors had been closed in the wake of the brawl or explosion.

Local Councilman Jesus Armas told the Associated Press that he wants the Venezuelan Interior Ministry to respond. They should explain how a civilian was able to obtain tear gas canisters, normally reserved for state security forces, and use them in a space as small as Los Cotorros. He also urged authorities to investigate whether the club had permission to hold several hundred people inside.

Mr Armas said the space had been the scene of violent events in the past as well. The club is used often by the Ecudadorean community in Caracas for parties and political events, he noted.

Murder rates in Venezuela have shot up during the country's spiral into economic crisis and political meltdown and many Caracas residents refuse to go out at night due to security fears.

There were almost 27,000 violent deaths last year, making Venezuela proportionally the world's second most murderous nation after El Salvador, according to a local crime monitoring group.

The homicide rate in Caracas alone was 104 per 100,000 people, the Venezuelan Observatory of Violence said.

Authorities say non-governmental groups inflate figures to create paranoia and tarnish Mr Maduro's socialist government.

Agencies contributed to this report