By ANDREA RODRÍGUEZ
HAVANA (AP) — A strong explosion apparently brought on by a pure fuel leak Friday killed at the very least eight individuals and injured 40 when it blew away outer partitions from a luxurious lodge within the coronary heart of Cuba’s capital.
No vacationers had been staying on the 96-room Hotel Saratoga as a result of it was present process renovations, Havana Gov. Reinaldo García Zapata advised the Communist Party newspaper Granma.
“It has not been a bomb or an attack. It is a tragic accident,” President Miguel Díaz-Canel, who visited the positioning, mentioned in a tweet.
The blast despatched smoke billowing into the air across the lodge with individuals on the road staring in awe, one saying “Oh my God,” and vehicles honking their horns as they sped away from the scene, video confirmed. It occurred as Cuba is struggling to revive its key tourism sector that was devastated by the coronavirus pandemic.
Cuba’s nationwide well being minister, José Ángel Portal, advised The Associated Press that hospitals had acquired about 40 injured individuals, however estimated that the quantity may rise because the search continues for individuals who could also be trapped within the rubble of the nineteenth century construction within the Old Havana neighborhood of the town.
Granma reported that native officers mentioned 13 individuals had been lacking. An elementary faculty subsequent to the lodge was evacuated and native information media mentioned no youngsters had been harm.
Police cordoned off the world as firefighters and rescue employees toiled contained in the wreckage of the emblematic lodge about 110 yards (100 meters) from Cuba’s Capitol constructing.
The lodge was first renovated in 2005 as a part of the Cuban authorities’s revival of Old Havana and is owned by the Cuban army’s tourism enterprise arm, Grupo de Turismo Gaviota SA.
It has been used ceaselessly by visiting VIPs and political figures, together with high-ranking U.S. authorities delegations. The Mexican newspaper Excelsior reported that Beyoncé and Jay Z had stayed there.
Photographer Michel Figueroa mentioned he was strolling previous the lodge when “the explosion threw me to the ground, and my head still hurts…. Everything was very fast.”
Worried kinfolk of people that had been working on the lodge confirmed up at a hospital within the afternoon to search for them. Among them was Beatriz Céspedes Cobas, who was tearfully looking for her sister.
“She had to work today. She is a housekeeper,” she mentioned. “I work two blocks away. I felt the noise, and at first, I didn’t even associate” the explosion with the lodge.
Yazira de la Caridad mentioned the explosion shook her house a block from the lodge: “The whole building moved. I thought it was an earthquake.”
“I’ve still got my heart in my hand,” she mentioned.
Besides the pandemic’s impression on Cuba’s tourism sector, the nation was already battling the sanctions imposed by the previous U.S. President Donald Trump which have been saved in place the Biden administration. The sanctions restricted visits by U.S. vacationers to the islands and restricted remittances from Cubans within the U.S. to their households in Cuba.
Tourism had began to revive considerably early this 12 months, however the warfare in Ukraine crimped a growth of Russian guests, who accounted for nearly a 3rd of the vacationers arriving in Cuba final 12 months.
The explosion occurred as Cuba’s authorities hosted the ultimate day of a tourism conference within the iconic seaside city of Varadero geared toward drawing traders.
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador is scheduled to reach in Havana for a go to late Saturday and Mexican Foreign Relations Secretary Marcelo Ebrard mentioned the go to would nonetheless happen.
Mayiee Pérez mentioned she rushed to the lodge after receiving a name from her husband, Daniel Serra, who works at a overseas change store contained in the lodge.
She mentioned he advised her: “I am fine, I am fine. They got us out.” But she was unable to succeed in him after that.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”