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According to new official figures, the death toll from a large blast at a five-star hotel in central Havana has risen to 18, with more than 50 people injured following a suspected gas leak.
Rescuers searched the ruins of the prestigious Saratoga Hotel for survivors, while ambulances transported the injured to hospitals and paramedics treated those with less severe injuries on the spot. “Unfortunately, 18 people have died,” Julio Guerra, the head of the Health Ministry’s hospital services, said at a press conference, raising the death toll from nine earlier in the day.
Both the ministry and the Cuban presidency stated that dozens of people were injured in the blast, but gave different figures ranging from 50 to 65
The late-morning blast that sent a cloud of dust and smoke billowing into the air gutted the first four floors of the establishment, which was empty of guests while being renovated.
“Search and rescue operations continue in the hotel, where it is feasible that other people are trapped,” Havana Communist Party authoritative Luis Antonio Torres Iribar said, adding that several people have been reported missing.
The explosion ripped off large sections of the hotel’s facade, blew out windows, and destroyed cars parked outside the hotel, which has hosted celebrities such as Madonna, Beyonce, Mick Jagger, and Rihanna.
A nearby Baptist church’s dome also collapsed.
Inside the hotel at the time were staff members preparing for its reply reopening, scheduled for next Tuesday.
President Miguel Diaz-Canel visited the website of the explosion and victims in hospital
A two-year-old boy had surgery for a fractured skull, according to Miguel Hernan Estevez, director of the hospital Hermanos Almejeiras.
“So far, we have no information that any foreigner was injured or killed, but… this is preliminary information,” Tourism Minister Juan Carlos
It’s not a bomb –
The explosion occurred while a gas tank was being refilled, according to Roberto Calzadilla of the state company Gaviota, which owns the hotel
“It was neither a bomb nor an attack; it was an unfortunate accident,” Diaz-Canel said, arriving at the scene an hour after the blast with the prime minister and the president of the National Assembly.
In 1997, Cuba was hit by a wave of anti-communist hotel bombings, which killed an Italian tourist and injured six others.
Ambulances and fire trucks rushed to the scene Friday, and police cordoned off the area, dispersing the crowds that had gathered near Havana’s iconic National Capitol Building, which housed Congress prior to the Cuban revolution.
