Havana: A deadly explosion hit a hotel in Havana, Cuba on Friday, tearing a gash several floors high in the side of the building, killing at least 22 people and injuring upwards of 70.
Speaking from the scene on Cuban television, President Miguel Diaz-Canel said the blast at the historic, high-end Hotel Saratoga appeared to have been caused by a gas leak.
Compatriotas y amigos de todo el mundo. #LaHabana está conmocionada hoy tras la accidental explosión de un depósito de gas en el #HotelSaratoga, que hizo colapsar gran parte de la instalación. pic.twitter.com/Po76NXPocB
— Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez (@DiazCanelB) May 6, 2022
“In no case was it a bomb or an attack. It is just a very unfortunate accident,” the President later told international media as he left the capital’s Calixto Garcia hospital, where many of the injured were under treatment.
The blast nonetheless sent a brief wave of panic through the historic old Havana neighbourhood, which has gradually begun reopening to tourists after the pandemic battered the Caribbean island’s crucial travel sector.
Hundreds of people from Cuba and tourists alike gathered near the property under a hot sun as police cordoned off the area around the hotel. Many speculated about the cause of the blast as ambulances and rescue workers carried victims from the wreckage.
Cuba’s tourism minister, Juan Carlos Garcia, said no foreigners were killed or injured in the blast, according to the initial reports.
The hotel, housed in a more than century-old building, had been closed, and only workers were inside at the time of the explosion, state-run TV said.
