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An explosion at a historic five-star hotel in Old Havana on Friday morning killed at least nine people and destroyed much of the building, Cuban officials said.
Thirteen people were unaccounted for and 40 were injured after the blast shook the Saratoga Hotel, opposite the Cuban Capitol, at around 11 a.m. Firefighters and rescue workers continued to search the wreckage for victims, the Cuban presidency tweeted.
The cause of the explosion is unclear, officials said, but a preliminary investigation shows a gas leak.
“It was not a bomb or an attack,” said President Miguel Diaz-Canel. “It’s an unfortunate incident.”
The hotel was preparing to reopen on Tuesday after closing two years ago during the coronavirus pandemic, according to a Facebook post on April 28, the latest on its page. Havana Governor Reynaldo Garcia Zapata said the hotel was under renovation and there were no tourists inside, according to the Granma Communist Party newspaper.
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Videos and images on social media show that the hotel’s façade has exploded, with smoke filling the air and crowds gathering on the street outside. A photo published by Reuters shows at least one body on the street in front of the hotel covered with a sheet.
Witnesses in front of the historic five-star Saratoga Hotel in Havana filmed the aftermath of an explosion on May 8 that killed at least nine people. (Video: The Washington Post)
David Duque, a 30-year-old travel blogger, was about to start a photo shoot about five blocks from the Saratoga Hotel when he felt the city roar and heard the thunder of the explosion.
“We thought it was a bomb or an attack,” Duque said. “I was so nervous that my legs were shaking. I did not know what to do. … We have never felt anything like this in Cuba. ”
He rushed to the hotel and found a scene of chaos and confusion. He saw the bloodied faces of elderly people passing by the hotel or on nearby buses during the blast. He saw uniformed employees of the hotel standing on what was left of the upper floors of the building and shouting for help. He saw children and others running to help pull people out of the rubble.
“I felt paralyzed,” he said. “We were afraid to get too close. We didn’t know what might happen next. “
A presidential tweet shows a wounded child in a hospital bed with a patch on one eye while Diaz-Canel visits patients. There is a school in front of the hotel. All her students have been evacuated safely, Cuban officials said.
Built in the 1930s and renovated in 2005, Saratoga has 96 rooms, two bars, two restaurants, a spa and a rooftop pool with panoramic views of the Cuban capital, according to the website. Beyoncé and Madonna are reportedly among the guests.
Cuba is trying to revive a key tourism sector that has been crippled by the pandemic and travel restrictions imposed by the Trump administration and maintained by the Biden administration.
As tourism collapsed, the Russians helped fill the gap, making up 40 percent of those arriving in Cuba last year, according to government figures quoted by Reuters. But when Russia invaded Ukraine, thousands of Russians in Cuba rushed to find flights home.
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Ahead of Friday’s blast, Cuban leaders attended an annual tourism fair this week in the seaside town of Varadero.
Cuba’s economy is struggling to recover from the pandemic, US sanctions and the collapse of Cuba’s once-rich oil patron. The failing economy, food shortages and power outages last year prompted Cubans to take to the streets in the country’s biggest protests in decades.
Duque, a travel blogger, lives outside of Havana, but travels to the city almost every day to take pictures promoting his architecture. Until Friday afternoon, he was still shaken by the hotel stage, which he described as an iconic part of Cuban heritage.
He hoped the hotel would not have to be demolished. “It would be a great loss,” he said.
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