Cuban officials said that a massive explosion at a historical five-star hotel in Old Havana on Friday has killed at least 18 people, injured many others, and destroyed almost the entire building.
Authorities said that the blast rocked the Hotel Saratoga, which was located across from the Cuban Capitol, at around 11:00 a.m. Two of the victims of the explosion were a pregnant woman and a child. Firefighters and a rescue team were searching the rubble for other residents that could have been trapped, said the Cuban presidency in a Twitter post.
Havana Hotel Explosion
Officials said that the cause of the blast was still unclear but noted that preliminary investigation suggested it could have been a gas leak. In a statement, President Miguel Diaz-Canel said that the incident was not due to a bomb or an attack and called it an "unfortunate accident."
The explosion comes as the hotel was planning to reopen on Tuesday after closing down two years ago because of the coronavirus pandemic. The news was announced on the hotel's Facebook page in a post on Apr. 28, as per the Washington Post.
Furthermore, Havana Gov. Reinaldo Garcia Zapata said that the hotel was undergoing repairs, noting that there were no tourists inside when the blast occurred. On social media, images and videos of the aftermath of the explosion showed the facade of the hotel being blasted away, smoke filling the air, and crowds gathering in the street outside.
One photograph also showed at least one body in the street outside the hotel which was covered with a sheet. Lester Fernandez, a 25-year-old who lives less than a five-minute walk from the Saratoga, said that the blast knocked him from his chair. He said that a piece of his home's ceiling fell when the explosion occurred.
According to Fox News, the 19th-century hotel had 96 rooms, two bars, two restaurants, and a rooftop pool. The mayor of the region said that children from a school adjacent to the hotel have already been evacuated to safety.
Investigation of the Incident
A 30-year-old travel blogger, David Duque, said he was just about to start a photoshoot roughly five blocks from the hotel when he felt the city rumble and heard the roaring bellow of the explosion. He said that he and other people he was with thought it was a bomb or an attack and said that he has never felt any such incident in Cuba.
He quickly rushed to the hotel and discovered a horrifying scene of chaos and confusion with people's faces bloodied. Duque said he saw uniformed hotel workers standing on what was left of the upper floors of the building and screaming for help. He added that there were also children running and others helping pull people out of the rubble.
Duque said he felt paralyzed and that they were too scared to get too close to the scene of the incident, arguing anything could have happened next. The presidency tweeted a photograph of an injured child lying in a hospital bed with a patch over one eye. The U.S. Embassy in Havana said it was closely monitoring the situation and would share additional information when known, CNN reported.
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