Death toll climbs to 30 after explosion hits five-star hotel in Havana

Search crews with dogs are hunting through the ruins of a luxury hotel in Cuba’s capital for survivors of an apparent gas explosion as officials raised the number of known dead to 30.

The Hotel Saratoga, a five-star 96-room hotel in Old Havana, had been preparing to reopen after being closed for two years when an apparent gas leak caused a massive explosion on Friday.

The Health Ministry said 84 people had been injured.

The dead included four minors, a pregnant woman and a Spanish tourist, whose companion was seriously injured.

Some 24 people remained in hospital, according to the Health Ministry.

On Saturday, a representative of Grupo de Turismo Gaviota, which owns the hotel, said 13 of its workers were missing.

Authorities said the cause of the explosion was still under investigation, but believed it to have been caused by a gas leak. A large crane hoisted a charred gas tanker out of the rubble on Saturday.

The explosion is another blow to the country’s crucial tourism industry.

Crews worked to clean up the surrounding streets and by late Saturday, substantial pedestrian traffic had resumed. Some nearby buildings were also heavily damaged by the explosion that blew out windows and rattled walls.

Even before the coronavirus pandemic kept tourists away from Cuba, the country was struggling with tightened sanctions imposed by former Donald Trump and kept in place by the Biden administration.

Tourism had started to revive early this year, but the war in Ukraine deflated a boom of Russian visitors, who accounted for almost a third of tourists in Cuba last year.

Attention began to shift to an official visit by Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who arrived in the capital on Saturday night, as he wraps up a five-country tour that began in Central America.

Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel visited Mexico during its independence day celebrations last year.

Mr Lopez Obrador has recently spoken out against the apparent US government intention of excluding Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua from the Summit of the Americas it will host in Los Angeles in June.