MIAMI, United States. – Official media journalist Lázaro Manuel Alonso reported This Monday an explosion at the Caribbean hotel, located on Prado and Colón, in Havana, due to an alleged gas leak.
“A gas leak is presumed, but the information is yet to be confirmed. An injured person is reported, who is already receiving care at the ‘Calixto García’ Hospital. The other guests were evacuated”, the official reporter specified.
It also indicated that “large structural damage” was not reported and that the situation was “controlled on the spot.” However, he said, “access is closed due to the danger that some element of the construction could fall.”
According to Alonso, Forces from the Fire Department, Public Health and the Police were acting at the scene, where authorities from the Old Havana municipality also attended.
News of the accident went viral immediately, less than a year after the tragedy at the saratoga hotelfor which 99 people were injured and 47 died (25 men and 22 women).
The explosion, which according to Alexis Acosta Silva, mayor of Old Havana, took place when a liquefied gas bullet was being used in the hotel, caused the entire façade of the building, located in front of the Havana Capitol, to fly into the air. .
The fatalities were mainly hotel workers who were inside the building at the time, and people passing by in the surrounding area. Most of the dead were Cubans, except for one spanish tourist that he was on vacation on the island and was walking, at that moment, through one of the streets surrounding the building.
The victims of the Saratoga hotel tragedy also included four children and a pregnant woman.
