Strong blast at Havana hotel kills 8 people, injures 40
ABC News
A powerful explosion apparently caused by a natural gas leak has blown away outer walls from a five-star hotel in the heart of Cuba’s capital, killing eight people and injuring at least 40
HAVANA -- A powerful explosion apparently caused by a natural gas leak Friday killed eight people and injured at least 40 when it blew away outer walls from a five-star hotel in the heart of Cuba’s capital.
No tourists were staying at the 96-room Hotel Saratoga because it was undergoing renovations, Havana Gov. Reinaldo García Zapata told 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 site, said in a tweet. The blast happened as Cuba is struggling to revive its key tourism sector that was devastated by the coronavirus pandemic and is being negatively impacted by the war in Ukraine.
Cuba's national health minister, José Ángel Portal, told The Associated Press that hospitals had received about 40 injured people, but estimated that the number could rise as the search continues for people who may be trapped between the debris of the 19th century structure in the Old Havana neighborhood of the city.
