The hotel is located opposite the Capitol building, where the People’s Power Assembly, the Cuban Parliament, currently meets.
At least eight people were killed and 40 injured in a powerful explosion that damaged a traditional Havana hotel on Friday, authorities said.
The explosion at the Saratoga Hotel, a 19th-century structure in Old Havana, was apparently caused by a gas leak, according to the Twitter account of the office of President Miguel Díaz-Canel, who responded to the scene.
Can read: 4 dead and 15 injured following a strong explosion in the Cuban capital
On the same social media account, the provincial director of Health, Emilio Delgado Iznaga, confirmed that eight people have died so far.
Injured in Havana hotel explosion
Health Minister Jose Angel Portal told The Associated Press that at least two hospitals had received regarding 40 injured people “so far,” a figure he estimated might rise as efforts continued to search for people possibly trapped under the rubble. He did not give details regarding the nationalities of the injured.
Both the minister and President Díaz-Canel visited the Calixto García Hospital, where most of the injured were transferred.
The official newspaper Granma reported that according to the first secretary of the Cuban Communist Party in Havana, Luis Antonio Torres Iríbar, everything indicates that the explosion was caused by an accident.
Meanwhile, Havana Governor Reinaldo Garcia Zapata said the hotel was being renovated and there were no tourists on the premises, according to Granma. The Cubadebate website reported that a nearby school had been evacuated.
Serious damage
An AP journalist who was able to visit the scene saw extensive damage to the first three floors of the building and firefighters working at the scene. Ambulances were also transporting the injured. Police cordoned off the area to prevent civilians from entering.
The hotel is located opposite the Capitol building, where the People’s Power Assembly, the Cuban Parliament, currently meets.
Cuban photographer Michel Figueroa told AP that “I was passing by the front at that moment. The explosion knocked me to the ground and my head still hurts. I stood up, but everything happened very fast,” said Figueroa, who showed the AP reporter images of the front of the hotel just following the explosion.
Mayiee Perez came running to the area asking for her husband, Daniel Serra, who works at a currency exchange located inside the hotel. She said her husband called her following the explosion and only said “I’m fine, I’m fine, they got us out,” but she was unable to speak to him once more.
Yazira de la Caridad, who lives in a building a block away, said: “The whole building shook, I thought it was an earthquake. I still have my heart in my hand.”
The hotel is located in an area of old and deteriorated buildings, so hundreds of residents took to the streets for fear of new explosions.
Located in the historic center of Havana, the Saratoga is a five-star hotel with 96 rooms, bars, restaurants and a rooftop pool with a panoramic view of the city.
With its French neoclassical design and wrought iron balconies, it is one of the most emblematic buildings in the Cuban capital.
With information from AP
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2024-07-06 04:27:11
