The cause of death of all 59 people killed in the fire at the Pulse disco in Kocani was violent suffocation in direct connection with the fire, said professor Dr. Alexander Stankov, head of the Institute of Forensic Medicine. He explained that four of the deceased had injuries, namely broken ribs, and suffocated due to the pressure that occurs in a stampede (compressive asphyxia).

-59 people have been autopsied. Most of them, or 70 percent of them, are between the ages of 16 and 29. Of the deceased, 16 people are female and 43 are male. The cause of death for all 59 victims is violent and occurred due to violent suffocation and is directly related to the fire in the "Pulse" disco. Some of them were found to have first and second degree burns, three people had fourth degree burns. The cause of death is suffocation. In the coming period, during March, we expect all reports regarding the autopsies to be completed. We may need more time to prepare the toxicological analyses, which, in reality, require time to perform. Everything we do, we will submit to the Prosecutor's Office. The clothing and personal belongings of the deceased that were found during the autopsies are at the Institute and they are under the jurisdiction of the Public Prosecutor's Office. What will happen to them will be decided by the Public Prosecutor's Office, as they may be taken as evidence in court proceedings, said Professor Dr. Stankov.

He, together with the Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, Professor Dr. Svetozar Antovic expressed condolences to the families of the deceased and wished a speedy recovery to the injured.

The Institute of Forensic Medicine has been given the saddest and one of the most responsible tasks to perform 59 autopsies in the shortest possible time, from which the cause of death will be determined, as well as identification, said Professor Doctor Antović.

The identification of the deceased was done using DNA methods and fingerprints.

-The identifications were checked several times, because in these conditions we cannot afford to make any mistakes. We had to check several times together with the Ministry of Interior to avoid any mistakes and we completed our work in a sufficiently quick period, said Professor Stankov.

In most cases of fire, the most common gas is carbon monoxide. Hydrogen cyanide and hydrogen sulfide may also occur.

"We are now conducting toxicological analyses to determine what is present in the blood, but according to the macroscopic findings during the autopsies, most of them contain carbon monoxide," added Stankov, pointing out that carbon monoxide is a very dangerous, odorless and tasteless gas that acts on the central nervous system and incapacitates victims, after which death can occur very quickly, within a few minutes, depending on the concentration. 

The professor pointed out that in that space, in such smoke, carbon monoxide acts very quickly and incapacitates the victims to escape. Headache, vomiting, dizziness, unconsciousness, disorientation, paralysis of the muscles with the inability to move are the consequences of this gas.

"But here you also need to take other things into account, such as ambient suffocation, because the burning flame consumes oxygen, so in addition to the impact of carbon monoxide, we also have a reduced amount of oxygen," replied Professor Stankov.

He explained that autopsies are a type of collection of material evidence to determine the cause of death, it will be determined whether there are other injuries, whether the cause of death is related to the event and what is very important in such mass accidents – the identification of the victims is carried out. Some of them, Stankov explained, had personal documents, but the deceased girls' personal documents were in their handbags and burned. Identifications with personal documents are only an orientation method and that is why the autopsy is important.

-In order for justice to come to light, for us to have a complete trial, for us to show ourselves as a state that is a state of law, certain rules must be respected. We respect those rules. We cannot perform identifications and determine the cause of death just by examination, a complete autopsy and positive identification must be performed, so that tomorrow we can stand before the court with dignity, where we will have many questions to answer, said the director of the Institute of Forensic Medicine.