BUCHAREST: Two more people died on Sunday of burns from a nightclub fire in Bucharest, a Romanian official said, raising the death toll in the horrific blaze to 30. Forensic experts, meanwhile, began the first autopsies of victims on Sunday.

Raed Arafat, an emergency situations official, said the two had died in the hospital. They were among the 180 injured as they fled a fire and ended up in a panicked stampede Friday night toward the only door in the basement nightclub Colectiv in downtown Bucharest.

Romanian media slammed as “irresponsible” both authorities and the owners of a nightclub where the fire and stampede left scores dead and nearly 200 injured, as hearings on the tragedy were set to begin. On Saturday, the government decreed three days of mourning.

Doctors say over 140 people are still hospitalized around the Romanian capital, dozens of them in serious condition.

Witnesses say the fire erupted after a spark on stage from a heavy metal pyrotechnics show ignited foam decor. Authorities are still collecting evidence from the scene.

“Coincidence, a curse or criminal negligence?” headlined the Evenimentul Zilei newspaper.

It alleged that two other nightclubs belonging to one of the owners of the Colectivu club in Bucharest, a former shoe factory where the tragedy occurred, have also been destroyed by fire in recent years.

An editorial in the daily Gandul accused authorities of failing to impose stricter safety regulations in bars and discos after similar deadly accidents.

“Who is responsible for the fact that we are more stunned by the ‘number of dead’ than that people died?” it said. It blamed the disaster on “irresponsibility” and “unscrupulousness.”

Witnesses said the disco was packed — with between 300 and 500 mostly young people according to the Interior Ministry — for a gig by a local heavy metal band, Goodbye to Gravity, late on Friday when fireworks unleashed a blaze that was followed by a stampede as terrified clubbers scrambled to reach the exit.