Rescuers combed through what remained of a luxury Havana hotel on Saturday (May 7) as the death toll climbed to 27 after an explosion due to a suspected gas leak, authorities said.
No survivors were found in the upper floors of the prestigious Saratoga Hotel, and rescuers said they were now concentrating their efforts on the jumbled debris filling the two-level basement of the neoclassical building.
Authorities reported Saturday that 37 people had been hospitalized, down from an earlier number of 46.
There was meanwhile some confusion after a Red Cross official gave a death toll of 32, but the higher number was later reported to be “an error”.
The hotel had been closed for business during renovation work, and many victims of Friday’s explosion were either construction workers or hotel employees preparing for its reopening.
But a 29-year-old Spanish tourist, who had been walking nearby, died in the blast.
So far, 11 hotel employees have been identified among the dead, said Roberto Enriquez Calzadilla, a spokesman for the state-run tourism group Gaviota, which operates the hotel.
He said the explosion happened while a gas tank was being refilled by a tanker truck.
Officials said the dead included four children and adolescents. More than a dozen of those hospitalised were listed in critical or serious condition.
With the search now turning toward the building’s basement levels – a woman’s cry for help was heard emanating from there on Friday afternoon – tons of smoking debris have complicated the task.
“My daughter works in the Saratoga – she’s been there (under the rubble) since... yesterday morning, and in all this time I still don’t know anything,” an anguished Yaumara Cobas told journalists, adding that she had checked with a hospital and the morgue.
“We’ve got to push on,” said longtime Politburo member Ramiro Valdes, a veteran of the Cuban revolution. “Some of our comrades could still be down there – alive.”
"Tragic news has reached us from Cuba. A Spanish tourist has died and another Spanish citizen is seriously injured after the explosion at the Saratoga Hotel," Spanish prime minister Pedro Sanchez said on Twitter.
"All our love to their families and those of all the victims and injured. Our support also to the Cuban people," he added.
The search is now focusing on the interior of the hotel and the basement, the television station said.
"It is very regrettable what happened, the destruction, especially the loss of life, and also the people injured, but once again I want to highlight the speed with which the population and institutions mobilised," Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel tweeted. "Solidarity has prevailed. #FuerzaCuba," he added, alluding to the many Cubans who rushed on Friday to donate blood to help the wounded.
Officials from the United States, Canada, the European Union, China, Russia and Venezuela sent messages of condolence.
The first four floors of the establishment, which were closed to guests while being renovated, were gutted in the late morning blast that sent a cloud of dust and smoke billowing into the air on Friday.
The explosion also tore off large parts of the facade, blew out windows and destroyed cars parked outside the five-star hotel, which has in the past hosted celebrities such as Madonna, Beyonce, Mick Jagger and Rihanna.
The dome of a nearby Baptist church also collapsed.
Inside the hotel at the time were employees preparing for its post-refurbishment reopening, which had been scheduled for Tuesday.
Mr Roberto Calzadilla of state company Gaviota, which owns the hotel, said the explosion happened while a gas tank was being refilled.
Ambulances and fire trucks rushed to the scene on Friday and police cordoned off the area, dispersing people who swarmed to the hotel near Havana's emblematic National Capitol Building, which housed Congress prior to the Cuban revolution.
The upmarket Saratoga Hotel has 96 rooms, two bars, two restaurants, a spa and a gym.
It was built in 1880 to house shops and converted into a hotel in 1933.
