At least 11 dead, 40 hurt in explosion
Tragedy at Havana hotel apparently caused by gas leak
A powerful explosion apparently caused by a gas leak Friday killed at least 11 people and injured 40 when it blew away outer walls from a luxury hotel in the heart of Cuba's capital.
No tourists were staying at Havana's 96-room Hotel Saratoga because it was undergoing renovations, Havana Gov. Reinaldo Garcia Zapata told the Communist Party newspaper Granma.
“It has not been a bomb or an attack. It is a tragic accident,” President Miguel Diaz-canel, who visited the site, said in a tweet.
Cuban state TV reported that the blast was caused by a truck that had been supplying natural gas to the hotel, but did not provide details on how the gas ignited.
The blast sent smoke billowing into the air around the hotel with people on the street staring in awe, one saying “Oh my God,” and cars honking their horns as they sped away from the scene, video showed. It happened as Cuba is struggling to revive its key tourism sector that was devastated by the coronavirus pandemic.
Cuban state TV reported that at least nine people died. Later, Orestes Llanes, coordinator of the Government of Havana, reported that two more bodies had been recovered from the rubble, raising the death toll to 11.
Cuba's national health minister, Jose Angel Portal, told The Associated Press that hospitals had received about 40 injured people.
But he said the number of injured could rise as the search continues for people who may be trapped in the rubble of the 19th century structure in the Old Havana neighborhood of the city.
“We are still looking for a large group of people who may be under the rubble,” Lt. Col. Noel Silva of the Fire Department said.
An elementary school next to the hotel was evacuated. Two 6-year-old boys and a 2-year-old boy were among the injured, according to officials at the hospital treating them. It's unclear if the elder boys were students.
Police cordoned off the area as firefighters and rescue workers toiled inside the wreckage of the emblematic hotel about 110 yards from Cuba's Capitol building.