MEXICO CITY — A strong explosion rocked central Havana on Friday morning, destroying elements of a luxurious resort and damaging close by buildings simply yards from the Cuban Capitol constructing.
At least 22 folks had been killed and dozens had been injured, the president’s workplace mentioned. More had been lacking. Among the lifeless had been a pregnant lady and a toddler.
The devastating blast got here as Cuba is making an attempt to revive a tourism business that may be a key pillar of its fragile economic system and that had been upended by the pandemic.
Videos and pictures shared on social media confirmed ambulances speeding to the scene and far of the facade of the Hotel Saratoga destroyed. Rubble was piled on the road, and smoke billowed into the sky.
“There was a stink, like a chemical, that burned your nose,” mentioned Miriam Díaz, 56, a Havana resident who lives behind the resort and was on a bus arriving residence on the time of the blast. “We couldn’t get out because the door wouldn’t open.”
The resort, a well-liked vacation spot for worldwide guests and celebrities, was present process renovation work and was not open to company on the time of the blast, authorities officers mentioned.
Cuba’s president, Miguel Díaz-Canel, went to the scene shortly after the explosion, together with Prime Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz. The workplace of the Cuban presidency mentioned on Twitter that preliminary investigations indicated the explosion, shortly earlier than 11 a.m., was brought on by a fuel leak.
At least 64 folks, together with 50 adults and 14 youngsters, had been initially hospitalized because of the blast, officers mentioned. Many flats had been broken, and people residents affected had been being transferred to a protected location whereas repairs had been carried out.
“Havana is in shock today after the accidental explosion of a gas tank at the Hotel Saratoga, which caused a large part of the building to collapse,’’ Mr. Díaz-Canel wrote on Twitter. “Our deepest condolences and sincere support to the families and friends of the victims.”
The explosion at a distinguished resort known as to thoughts a collection of resort bombings in Havana within the Nineteen Nineties linked to militant exiles. But the authorities had been fast to dismiss any hypothesis that the blast had been deliberate.
“This wasn’t in any way a bomb or an attack,” Mr. Díaz-Canel instructed reporters on the scene. It was “an unfortunate accident.”
The president’s workplace added that search and rescue efforts had been nonetheless being carried out, with folks probably nonetheless trapped within the rubble. Officials advised that the blast occurred simply exterior the resort.
“I felt the explosion,” mentioned Pablo Morales, 21, an engineering scholar who lives only a few blocks from the resort. “It shook the street. It shook the ground. It shook the windows.”
An iconic constructing courting to the nineteenth century, the Hotel Saratoga had reopened in 2005 as a luxurious, five-star institution. The resort had been closed for 2 years due to the pandemic, based on its Facebook web page, and was set to reopen subsequent week.
Among the buildings broken was the close by Concepción Arenal School. A instructor from the college who didn’t need to give her title mentioned a number of college students had been injured. She mentioned home windows had been blown out, with shards of glass flying a substantial distance.
The native director of training instructed Cuban media that 5 college students had been injured within the blast.
“It’s shocking,” mentioned Ms. Díaz, whose daughter attends the college however was unhurt by the blast. “It’s really very tough.”
State media reported that youngsters had been evacuated to the Capitol within the wake of the blast, and officers mentioned later that college students would be capable of attend one other constructing beginning Monday.
A close-by church was additionally badly broken.
“The walls fell down completely. The roof of the church caved in,” mentioned Mr. Morales, who was a parishioner. “All the windows, there wasn’t a single one left — not in the church and not in the Martí Theater that’s in front.”
As rescue employees moved in, Mr. Morales mentioned he watched folks being pulled from the rubble. At least three had been lifeless.
“They were destroyed,” he mentioned. “You could see a lot of blood.”
The Cuban Communist Party newspaper, Granma, mentioned on Twitter that the explosion occurred “while liquefied gas was presumably being moved from a truck.”
The explosion got here as Cuba’s all-important tourism sector was starting to bounce again after being laborious hit in the course of the pandemic. The island nation had been shut off to guests for months, plunging Cuba into one among it worst financial crises in historical past.
“This has to give people pause about whether Havana is really ready to reopen,” mentioned Renata Keller, a Cuba professional on the University of Nevada, Reno. Cubans “really need this recovery in the tourism industry and this explosion is not going to help.”
The disappearance of vacationers disadvantaged Cuba of important international foreign money that it’s closely depending on, exacerbating the monetary challenges brought on by the decades-long U.S. embargo.
The financial disaster set off one of many largest protest actions in Cuban historical past, with hundreds of individuals taking to the streets in cities throughout the nation. A subsequent authorities crackdown has led to the sentencing of dozens of individuals for crimes, together with sedition.
The explosion occurred days after Cuba hosted a global tourism honest within the close by resort city of Varadero.
Shortly after the blast, calls unfold on social media for blood donations to assist victims of the explosion. Photos shared on-line confirmed Cubans lining as much as donate at a blood financial institution in Havana.
Mexico’s international secretary, Marcelo Ebrard, mentioned on Friday afternoon that the upcoming go to of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador to the island would go forward as deliberate.
“Our solidarity to the victims and those affected as well as to the people of this dear brotherly nation,” Mr. Ebrard mentioned on Twitter.
Originally inbuilt 1880, the Saratoga was thought of one of the vital essential resorts in Havana within the Nineteen Thirties, based on its web site. It initially served as a tobacco warehouse and retailer, together with some flats. It was constructed at a distinct location earlier than it was moved to its present deal with on Paseo del Prado, an extended and in style avenue that cuts by way of Havana. It was was a resort within the Nineteen Thirties.
Now owned by the state-run Gaviota tourism group, the resort has hosted worldwide vacationers for many years. Among its notable clientele have been guitarist Jimmy Page and singer Beyoncé Knowles-Carter.
Hannah Berkeley Cohen contributed reporting from Columbus, Ohio. Frances Robles contributed reporting from Miami, Fl.