Explosion at luxury hotel in Havana leaves at least four dead

At least four people have died and 13 are missing as a result of the explosion at the Saratoga luxury hotel in downtown Havana, Cuba’s capital, on Friday (6).

“The first secretary of the Party in Havana, Luis Antonio Torres Iríbar, explains that so far the death of 4 people has been confirmed,” wrote the Cuban Presidency profile on Twitter.

“According to the information provided by Torres Iríbar, so far 13 people are still missing,” he added.

The presidency’s profile also reported that the “search and rescue work continues at the hotel, where people may still be trapped. [nos escombros]”.

An explosion rocked the Cuban capital of Havana this Friday (6), destroying the front of the luxury hotel Saratoga. Preliminary investigations indicate that the reason for the explosion was a gas leak.

Cuban police and firefighters search for survivors among the rubble.

Footage from the site showed the facade blown up on at least three floors of the ornate green and white stucco building. Clouds of dust and smoke could be seen rising around debris on the ground.

Buses and cars were seen wrecked outside the hotel.

A post made on Twitter by the Cuban Presidency showed that the president, Miguel Díaz-Canel, is at the scene of the explosion. Diáz-Canel is accompanied by the Cuban Prime Minister, Manuel Marrero, and the President of the Assembly of Cuba, Esteban Lazo.

“Preliminary investigations indicate that the explosion was caused by a gas leak. There will be more details on this soon,” the presidency profile wrote.

Eyewitnesses told Patrick Oppmann, a correspondent for the CNN, that is in place, that a “big explosion” took place.

According to Oppmann, the hotel – which is one of the most popular in the city – was virtually empty because of the pandemic.

With daily rates between R$1,400 and R$7,100, the luxury hotel operates in a commercial building built in 1880 and adapted as a hotel in 1933.

It is close to the Capitol of Havana, which was the seat of the Cuban Congress until the 1959 revolution, and is now home to the Cuban Academy of Sciences and the National Library of Science and Technology.

According to the website of the Hotel Saratoga, located in the historic center of the Cuban capital, the building has 96 rooms, two bars, two restaurants, a spa, an equipped gym and a rooftop pool.



Source: CNN Brasil

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