Fire-hit Spain nightclubs were told to close in 2022

The fire spread from Fonda Milagros to the next door Teatre club

Two nightclubs at the centre of a deadly fire in the Spanish city of Murcia had been ordered to close last year, local officials said.

The company running the Teatre and Fonda Milagros nightclubs had only had a permit to run one of them, the deputy mayor said.

It was unclear why the clubs had been able to keep operating since then.

At least 13 people died, with people from Colombia, Nicaragua, Ecuador and Spain among the dead, reports said.

Victims also included family members celebrating a birthday, local media reported.

Investigations into the fire are ongoing and officials have not yet identified the cause.

Murcia's Deputy Mayor Antonio Navarro told reporters that the city council had ordered the Teatre and Fonda Milagros nightclubs to close in January 2022.

The company operating them only had a license to run the Teatre and not the Fonda Milagros, which was created later, he said, according to AFP.

He vowed to find out who was responsible for the fire but did not explain how the venues had been able to keep operating since being told to close.

Police believe the fire broke out in the Fonda Milagros and then spread to the Teatre and a third nightclub in the building called the Golden.

"The fatalities were all concentrated in a very small area in the Fonda establishment," a police spokesman said.

A man who gave his name as Jairo said he was the father of one of the victims and said he had not heard from his 28-year-old daughter since receiving a voice note at about 06:00 local time.

"Mum, I love you. We're going to die. I love you mum," a young woman's voice could be heard crying on the recording.

Murcia Mayor Jose Ballesta has decreed three days of mourning in Murcia.

The fire is believed to be the country's worst such blaze in more than 30 years. In 1990, 43 people were killed in a nightclub in Zaragoza.