Cuba toll 27

Relatives of the missing in Cuba’s capital desperately searched yesterday for victims of an explosion at one of Havana’s most luxurious hotels, the Hotel Saratoga, that killed at least 27 people. A natural gas leak was the apparent cause of the blast at the 96-room hotel. The 19thcentury structure in the Old Havana neighbourhood did not have any guests at the time because it was undergoing renovations. Yesterday Dr Julio Guerra Izquierdo, of the Ministry of Health, raised the death toll to 27, and 81 injured.