Romanian anti-corruption prosecutors have arrested a former mayor over a nightclub fire that killed 41 people in Bucharest.

Cristian Popescu Piedone resigned as the mayor of the Bucharest district where the Colectiv club is located following mass protests.

Prosecutors said on Saturday that there was evidence Popescu had granted a permit for the club despite it not being authorised by firefighters.

“Given that several … events took place … in broadly unsafe public conditions, the lives, health and physical integrity of the audience and staff were permanently put in danger,” the prosecutors said in a statement.

About 20,000 people held a demonstration in Bucharest on Tuesday evening, calling for the resignation of Popescu, the prime minister, Victor Ponta, and the interior minister, Gabriel Oprea. Ponta, his government and Popescu resigned the next day.

Another nine people died on Saturday from the injuries they sustained in the fire, bringing the death total to 41. Two died in the Netherlands, where they had been transported for specialist treatment.

The club’s three owners were arrested on 2 November. City hall clerks and the owners of the company that installed the fireworks that caused the fire are also under investigation.

The fire has prompted an outpouring of community support, with people donating money and blood, and volunteers taking food and drink to hospitals for medical staff and victims’ families.

The interim prime minister, Sorin Cîmpeanu said 107 people were still in hospital, 48 of them in a serious or critical condition.

The fire broke out last Friday night at a concert at the Colectiv, when fireworks set insulation foam alight and triggered a stampede towards the venue’s only exit. Many of the 400 people in the audience were trapped inside.

Tens of thousands of people subsequently took to the streets across Romania, angry at a public administration widely seen as corrupt. Protests continued even after the cabinet resigned.

Consultations over a new Romanian prime minister will resume next week after initial talks with political and civil society leaders yielded no candidate, the country’s president, Klaus Iohannis, said.



