Witnesses at trial: police were outside 'Puls' and aided after the fire

At a hearing in the Basic Court in Kocani, three witnesses proposed by the defence said police officers were present at the entrance of the Puls cabaret both before and after the deadly fire and later helped move injured people and clear the entrance.

Defence witnesses describe identification checks and on-site assistance

The trial continues against 13 police officers charged with failing to act according to the action plan after the blaze at the Puls venue in Kocani, which on March 16, 2025 killed 63 people and injured more than 200.

The first witness, then a minor, told the court that he and his friends left the club at about 1:15 a.m. after a waiter warned them that police were outside. He said an officer stopped them at the door, took their personal details and that he identified that officer in court as the accused Marjan Radevski.

"At that very moment someone from inside shouted that there was a fire. Someone inside yelled that it had caught fire and the policeman told us to run away from the place," the witness said. He added that they left mainly because they were minors and that, if police had not been outside, he would have remained inside.

The same witness told the court that, after the fire began, people were shouting for space to be made to allow evacuations. "We heard someone shouting 'make way, make way so people can get out', then we called a taxi and left," he said.

The second defence witness said he had seen Radevski earlier that evening during a police check at the Boulevard café and later near the Puls ticket office. He described being near the entrance when an explosion threw him down the stairs; afterwards he, Radevski and other officers helped clear the entrance and move the wounded.

"Marjan asked us to clear the entrance at the stairs," the witness told the court. He added that one friend was seriously injured and later treated in Spain; the group transported the injured person by private vehicle to Shtip after locating everyone.

The third defence witness also confirmed that officers were giving instructions on transporting survivors. Throughout the hearing a parent of one of the victims addressed the court and stressed that help given after the outbreak of the fire cannot erase earlier official failures.

"Rescue is a response once danger has already occurred, while prevention is timely action before human lives are threatened. The key questions are why a concert was allowed to take place in a venue that operated illegally, why the event was not stopped if it had not been reported to the Ministry of Interior, and whether authorities reacted in time regarding the pyrotechnics. We expect the Court to determine who should have prevented the tragedy in which 63 people died," the parent said.

Of the 13 accused officers, nine are uniformed police and four are chiefs — two from OVR Kocani and two from SVR Shtip. The trial is presided over by Judge Fanka Janchuleva-Mihailovska; the prosecution is represented by prosecutor Spasenka Andonova.

Photo: press material from the event