A fire downtown Romanian seaside city of Constanta claimed three lives, injured four and almost entirely destroyed a restaurant, a pub and a casino. It took the firefighters more than five hours to put out the fire over the weekend.

The fire started on Saturday in the two-storey building, and affected the Lebanese restaurant Beirut, a pub and a casino in the same building, where there were dozens of people.

Three women, all dancers for the Lebanese restaurant, who were in the locker room in the attic died, and four others were injured. A 19-year old woman managed to escape the locker room in the attic, but was seriously injured, and was taken to the hospital in Bucharest, where she is still under critical condition. The three who died did not manage to leave the room on time, and rescue teams found them dead after the ceiling collapsed.

Prosecutors started a criminal case against the company which owns the restaurant and against its owner. The same company received a RON 7,000 fine several weeks ago for several irregularities found during a labor inspection. Prosecutors also found that the three women who died were not legally employed.

Two of them were 22, and were from Constanta and Costinesti, while the third was 23 and came from Mangalia.

Another man was admitted to he Constanta hospital, while another woman and a firefighter, who were intoxicated because of the smoke, were sent home after being treated.

editor@romania-insider.com