22 killed in blast at iconic Havana lodge, fuel leak suspected
A lethal explosion hit a widely known lodge in downtown Havana on Friday, tearing a gash a number of flooring excessive within the aspect of the constructing, killing a minimum of 22 folks and injuring upwards of 70, witnesses and state media stated.
Speaking from the scene on Cuban tv, President Miguel Diaz-Canel stated the blast on the historic, high-end Hotel Saratoga appeared to have been brought on by a fuel leak.
“In no case was it a bomb or an attack,” he later advised Reuters as he left the capital’s Calixto Garcia hospital, the place lots of the injured have been handled. ‘It’s only a very unlucky accident.”
The blast nonetheless sent a brief wave of panic through the historic old Havana neighborhood, which has gradually begun reopening to tourists after the pandemic battered the Caribbean island’s crucial travel sector.
Rescue teams work at a site after an explosion destroyed the Hotel Saratoga, in Havana, Cuba May 6, 2022. (Photo: Reuters)
Hundreds of Cubans and tourists alike gathered near the property under a hot sun as police cordoned off the area around the hotel. Many speculated about the cause of the blast as ambulances and rescue workers carried victims from the wreckage.
The explosion rattled a nearby school with more than 300 students in attendance, health authorities said. At least 15 children were reported injured as of late Friday evening, the health ministry said, and one child had died.
Cuba’s tourism minister, Juan Carlos Garcia, said no foreigners were killed or injured in the blast, according to initial reports.
The hotel, housed in a more than century-old building, had been closed and only workers were inside at time of the explosion, state-run TV said, citing Roberto Enrique Calzadilla, a representative of the military-run company that operates many of the country’s hotels.
The covered body of a victim lies on the street after an explosion destroyed the Hotel Saratoga, in Havana, Cuba May 6, 2022. (Photo: Reuters)
In a broadcast interview, Calzadilla said the 96-room hotel had been set to re-open in the next few days and that the workers on site were making final preparations.
He also said a gas leak appeared to be the cause.
“The staff have been … making repairs and doing all of the work to open the property and within the morning they have been resupplying the fuel and it appears some accident brought about an explosion,” he stated.
The blast shrouded the constructing and surrounding streets in plumes of black smoke and dirt rising from the rubble.
Police and rescue staff moved rapidly to cordon off some close by authorities buildings, together with the historic Capitolio, or capital constructing.
A photograph from the scene confirmed what seemed to be a minimum of one physique with a white material over it. A block from the blast, a person carried a girl screaming in ache to a clinic, as onlookers begged for details about family members.
The neoclassical fashion Saratoga Hotel was reworked by a British firm after the autumn of the Soviet Union and for a few years was thought of the place to remain by visiting authorities officers and celebrities.
Recently, it had misplaced a few of its shine with the opening of latest motels in Havana, however was nonetheless a five-star venue.
