At least four dead as explosion rocks historic hotel in Havana
Source: Washington Post
An unexplained explosion at a historic hotel in Old Havana killed at least four people and destroyed much of the building on Friday morning, Cuban officials said.
Thirteen people were missing. Firefighters and a rescue team searched the rubble of the Hotel Saratoga, where people could still be trapped, according to a tweet from the official account of the Cuban presidency. The causes of the explosion were unclear, the tweet said, but preliminary investigation pointed to a gas leak.
Videos and images on social media showed smoke filling the air and crowds gathering in the street outside the hotel. A photo published by the news agency Reuters showed at least one body in the street outside the hotel covered with a sheet.
Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel and other officials were at the scene.
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/05/06/cuba-explosion-hotel-saratoga-havana/
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Source: Associated Press
Havana hotel toll rises to 30; dogs search for survivors
By ANDREA RODRÍGUEZ
May 8, 2022
HAVANA (AP) — Search crews with dogs on Sunday hunted through the ruins of a luxury hotel in Cuba’s capital for survivors of a devastating explosion while officials raised the number of known dead to 30.
The Hotel Saratoga, a five-star 96-room hotel in Old Havana, was preparing to reopen after being closed for two years when an apparent gas leak ignited, blowing the outer walls into the busy, midmorning streets just a block from the country’s Capitol building on Friday.
Cuban officials on Sunday raised the known death toll to 30 from 27 even as crews continued to search for victims buried beneath piles of shattered concrete. Several nearby structures also were damaged, including the historic Marti Theater and the Calvary Baptist Church, headquarters for the denomination in western Cuba.
The church said on its Facebook page that the building suffered “significant structural damage, with several collapsed or cracked walls and columns (and) the ceiling partially collapsed,” though no church workers were hurt.
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Read more: https://apnews.com/article/covid-business-health-explosions-cuba-6514f487aa8e789f8bb7947c44de02eb
Rescuers search for survivors at the site of Friday's deadly explosion that destroyed the five-star Hotel Saratoga, in Havana, Cuba, Saturday, May 7, 2022. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)
Rescue teams remove debris from the site of a deadly explosion that destroyed the five-star Hotel Saratoga, in Havana, Cuba, Friday, May 6, 2022. A powerful explosion apparently caused by a natural gas leak killed at least 18 people, including a pregnant woman and a child, and injured dozens Friday when it blew away outer walls from the luxury hotel in the heart of Cuba’s capital. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)
