At least 22 people were killed and more than 50 injured, yesterday, Friday, in a powerful explosion that occurred at the Saratoga Hotel in central Havana and destroyed part of it, which was caused by a gas leak.
Local TV reported in its news bulletin that four bodies had been pulled out of the rubble early in the evening. An hour before that, the official death toll was 18 dead, including a child, and more than 50 wounded.
The authorities said that there were survivors under the rubble and sent a squad of dogs to search for them, including a woman whom rescuers spoke to.
Earlier, Julio Guerra, who is in charge of hospital services at the Ministry of Health, said during a press conference, “So far, there are 74 wounded, of whom, unfortunately, 18 have died,” including a child.
For its part, the Cuban presidency stated that the death toll from the explosion amounted to 18 dead and 64 wounded.
Washington, through its State Department spokesman, Ned Price, offered “its sincere condolences to all those affected by the tragic explosion.”
In turn, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, said on Twitter that he had spoken with Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez and offered him his condolences, expressing his solidarity with the Cuban people.
For his part, Nicolas Maduro, President of Venezuela, called his Cuban counterpart to offer his condolences, saying, “The Cuban people receive solidarity and support from all the peoples of the world, especially from the Bolivarian people of Venezuela.”
And earlier, Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel announced on Twitter that “so far there are nine dead and 40 injured,” offering the families of the victims their “most sincere condolences.”
The president’s tweet came shortly after Miguel Garcia, director of the Caleto Garcia Hospital, to which a number of the injured were transferred, announced that 11 of the wounded were “in very serious condition.”
The hotel, which is a landmark of Old Havana, was under restoration and closed to tourists. And there were only a number of employees inside it, who were completing work to reopen it on May 10th.
The Cuban presidency noted on Twitter that “the first information indicates that the explosion was caused by a gas leak.”
And the government’s Cubadebit website quoted Alexis Costa Silva, a local official in the archaeological quarter in the Cuban capital, as saying that he was working on replacing a liquid gas cylinder at the hotel. The chef smelled gas and noticed a crack in the cylinder, which caused the explosion.