2024-08-08 00:41:45
Rescue efforts and efforts to find the cause continue after a hotel collapsed in the German Mosel town of Kloof. The accident killed two people and trapped many people in the rubble, some for hours. Rescuers rescued a two-year-old child and his parents from the Netherlands on Wednesday. The first death has also recovered. Late at night, emergency services finally rescued the last surviving woman from the hotel.
Bernkastel-Wittlich regional fire and disaster control inspector Jörg Teusch said the two deceased were a woman and a man born in 1961, both of German nationality. While the woman’s body was discovered late Wednesday afternoon, the man still lay in the rubble. According to police, rescue operations at night were too dangerous. The deceased was said to be a hotel owner.
Tesch said rescuers used heavy equipment to try for hours to get into the hotel before finally succeeding. Through drilling, directional microphones can be used to contact buried victims. At night, air is pumped into the building through orange ducts.
Part of the hotel collapsed around 11pm on Tuesday. Residents called emergency numbers, according to police. “When the first units arrived, it was apparent that the entire floor of the structure had collapsed and the two ceilings were essentially on top of each other,” Tesch said. There were 14 people in the hotel at the time of the collapse. Tesch explained that five people were rescued relatively quickly because they were in “an unaffected part of the building.” Nine other people were initially trapped under the rubble.
As for the collapsed floor, Teusch said the basic structure of the building may be from the 17th century. “Around 1980, two and a half floors were added to the ground floor.” Since 2008, the collapsed hotel’s front building has been a cultural monument. According to police, the cause of the accident is still completely unknown. Trier’s senior prosecutor Peter Fritzen said an expert should have been commissioned.
“This is an unusual accident for the state of Rhineland-Palatinate,” Alexander Schweitzer (SPD), Chancellor of the state of Rhineland-Palatinate, said after visiting the scene of the accident. “Fortunately, houses like this Collapse and hotel collapse in the center of a beautiful tourist area has not been a common occurrence in recent years and should not have been the case.”
German Interior Minister Nancy Feser (SPD) also commented after the tragic accident: “I express my sympathy and thoughts to the families of the victims. We very much hope that the seriously injured can recover.” She especially thanked the technical rescue agency, which dispatched Around 100 helpers were deployed to support emergency services on site and were closely monitoring to ensure that other parts of the building did not collapse.
According to the press center, neighbors of the building were also affected by the accident: 21 people had to leave their apartments. They have now been able to return home. No other buildings other than the hotel were damaged, the statement said.
Kloof is a small town on the Moselle River in Rhineland-Palatinate with approximately 2,300 inhabitants. Due to its location between vineyards and the River Moselle, the wine village is a popular destination for tourists, including those from abroad. The collapsed hotel was only about 150 meters away from the banks of the Moselle River. According to the home page, there are 16 rooms and a restaurant.
1723080958
#Rescue #efforts #continue #German #hotel #collapse
