A nightclub fire in southern Brazil has probably left more than 200 people dead, a senior police official said on Sunday.

Major Gerson da Rosa Ferreira, overseeing rescue efforts at the scene for the military police, told reporters that 159 bodies had already been identified and removed from the nightclub in the southern city of Santa Maria.

He said the victims had suffocated or been trampled, and that the death toll was likely to be above 200 people. – Reuters