Havana (AP) – Search groups with dogs on Sunday searched the ruins of a luxury hotel in the Cuban capital for survivors of a devastating explosion, and authorities raised the death toll to 30.
The Saratoga Hotel, a 96-room five-star hotel in Old Havana, is preparing to reopen after closing for two years when a bright gas leak occurred and the exterior walls exploded in busy street and afternoon a block from the nation’s capital. Construction Friday.
On Sunday, Cuban officials increased the death toll from 27 to 30, although crews continued to search for victims buried under concrete remains. Several nearby structures were also damaged, including the historic Theater of the March and the Golgotha Baptist Church, the seat of the name in western Cuba.
The church said on its Facebook page that the building suffered “significant structural damage, with some walls and columns collapsing or breaking (and) partially collapsing from the ceiling,” although church workers were not injured. .
According to the health ministry, 84 people were injured in the blast on Friday. Among the dead were four minors, a pregnant woman and a Spanish tourist whose partner was seriously injured.
The ministry also released the identities of those killed on Sunday. About 24 people remained in the hospital.
On Saturday, a spokesman for Grupo de Turismo Gaviota SA, the hotel’s owner, said 13 of its employees were missing. On Saturday night, Governor Reinaldo Garcia Zapata said 19 families have lost loved ones and relief efforts will continue.
Authorities said the cause of the explosion was still under investigation, but suggested it was caused by a gas leak. A large crane removed a carbon gas tanker from the rubble on Saturday.
According to municipal authorities, the burial of the victims has already begun. But some are still waiting for news about the missing friends and relatives.
“Hopefully we know something about my cousin’s mother,” Angela Acosta told The Associated Press at the scene of the explosion. Her relative, Maria de la Concepcion Allard, lives in a nearby apartment with a black Labrador who was rescued along with another dog on Sunday.
Teams were working to clean up the streets around the hotel, and pedestrian traffic continued on Saturday.
“There are mothers who don’t have children today,” said Mata Verde, a manicurist who walked near Saratoga on Sunday when Mother’s Day was celebrated in Cuba. He told the women that they had lost sons or daughters in Cuba. explosion that “must continue”.
The outbreak was exacerbated by the plight of the vital tourism industry, which has been crushed by a corovirus pandemic, as well as the tightening of sanctions imposed by former U.S. President Donald Trump and the Biden administration. Limited visits by American tourists to the islands and limited remittance of Cubans living in the United States to families in Cuba.
Tourism began to recover earlier this year, but the war in Ukraine was marked by an increase in Russian visitors, who made up nearly a third of tourists who came to Cuba last year.
Saratoga, which closed during the pandemic, is one of Havana’s select residences often inhabited by visiting VIPs and celebrities.
Some attention has already begun in Cuba with the official visit of Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who arrived on Saturday night and on Sunday he met Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel. Lopez Obrador concludes the tour in five countries that began in Central America.
Diaz-Canel visited Mexico last year to celebrate Independence Day. Lopez Obrador recently spoke about the U.S.’s apparent intention to exclude Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua from the summit of the American continent, which it will host in Los Angeles in June.
Source: Huffpost
