Kiss club owner attempts suicide


An owner of the Brazilian nightclub where 235 people perished in a weekend fire tried to commit suicide, police said Wednesday, and the number of survivors seeking medical treatment after the disaster continued to rise.

Elissandro Sphor tried to kill himself with a plastic shower hose, said senior police official Lilian Carus in the town of Cruz Alta, 125 km from Santa Maria, where the club owner is hospitalized.

Police took Sphor and three others into custody as they pieced together what caused the inferno at the Kiss nightclub, which was packed with partying students when the blaze broke out early Sunday. About 75 injured victims of the fire are clinging to life, some in critical condition, in the college town.