KABUL (BNA) At least 22 people have been killed and more than 70 injured after a large explosion ripped through a historic hotel in Havana, the Cuban government has said.
Police and fire rescuers are combing through rubble for survivors after an explosion late Friday morning destroyed a hotel in Havana, Cuba, killing at least 22 people and injuring at least 64.
In a series of tweets on Friday afternoon, President Miguel Diaz-Canel’s office said preliminary investigations indicated that the explosion at the five-star Hotel Saratoga in Old Havana was caused by a gas leak.
“Everything indicates that the explosion was caused by an accident,” He added on his tweet.
“In no case was it a bomb or an attack,” he told Reuters news agency as he left the capital’s Calixto Garcia hospital, where many of the injured were treated. ‘It’s just a very unfortunate accident.”
According to preliminary data, a child and a pregnant woman were among those who died, it said.
The presidency also said 64 people have been hospitalized for injuries, including 14 minors.
Cuban state TV said there are potential survivors trapped in the basement of the destroyed hotel.
Witnesses described a “massive blast,” which appeared to destroy buses and cars outside the hotel in the center of the city. Reported foreign media.
The hotel was built at the end of the 19th century and, by the 1930s, it was one of the most important hotels in the city. It has 96 rooms since reopening in 2005 after refurbishment, Personalities such as the writer Rafael Alberti have passed through its doors, according to its website.
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