By ANDREA RODRÍGUEZ
HAVANA (AP) — A robust explosion apparently brought on by a gasoline leak Friday killed a minimum of 11 folks 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 at Havana’s 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 location, mentioned in a tweet.
Cuban state TV reported that the blast was brought on by a truck that had been supplying pure gasoline to the lodge, however didn’t present particulars on how the gasoline ignited.
The blast despatched smoke billowing into the air across the lodge with folks 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.
Cuban state TV reported that a minimum of 9 folks died. Later, Orestes Llanes, coordinator of the Government of Havana, reported that two extra our bodies had been recovered from the rubble, elevating the loss of life toll to 11.
Cuba’s nationwide well being minister, José Ángel Portal, advised The Associated Press that hospitals had obtained about 40 injured folks.
But he mentioned the variety of injured might 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.
“We are still looking for a large group of people who may be under the rubble,” Lt. Col. Noel Silva of the Fire Department mentioned.
An elementary college subsequent to the lodge was evacuated. Two 6-year-old boys and a 2-year-old boy had been among the many injured, based on officers on the hospital treating them. It’s unclear if the elder boys had been college students.
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 navy’s tourism enterprise arm, Grupo de Turismo Gaviota SA. The firm mentioned it was investigating the reason for the blast and didn’t instantly reply to an electronic mail looking for extra particulars in regards to the lodge and the renovation it was present process.
The Hotel Saratoga has been used incessantly by visiting VIPs and political figures, together with high-ranking U.S. authorities delegations. Beyoncé and Jay-Z stayed there throughout a 2013 go to to Cuba.
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 kin 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 trying to find 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.”
Besides the pandemic’s influence on Cuba’s tourism sector, the nation was already combating 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 struggle 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 seashore city of Varadero aimed 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 international alternate 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”