Szimpla is the most famous bar in Budapest and listed as one of the world’s best bars. I estimate that it has a capacity of around 3,000 and has made the owners extremely wealthy. It also has absolutely no emergency exits - just a single front entrance. It would be closed within hours if it operated in the UK. But here in Budapest any rule, even the most basic safety ones, can be ignored for those with connections, power or money.

There have been a couple of incidents that I can recall over the past years where occupants of unsafe venues have been killed due to poor fire safety: 64 dead in Romania which caused huge protests at the corruption that enabled that nightclub to operate, and 33 dead in Oakland, CA. You’d think someone would have noticed that Budapest’s most famous bar doesn’t actually have a single emergency exit.