Venezuela club explosion leaves 17 dead

CARACAS, June 18 (Reuters): At least seventeen people died at a Caracas club on Saturday when a person activated a tear gas grenade inside.

Venezuela's interior minister Nestor Reverol said over 500 people were at a party at the Los Cotorros club in the middle-class El Paraiso neighbourhood when the device went off during a fight between several people, causing a stampede towards the exits, Reverol said on state TV.

Eleven people suffocated to death when the gas filled the club's confined space, said Noris Villanueva, an autopsy assistant at the local Perez Carreno Hospital, who examined their bodies. It was not clear how the other six died.

Eight of those who died were younger than 18, Reverol said, and five people were injured.

Reverol said authorities had arrested 7 people and the investigation was ongoing.