MIAMI, United States. – Official news journalist Lázaro Manuel Alonso reported this Monday that an explosion at the Caribbean Hotel, located at Prado and Colón Streets, in Havana, took place due to an alleged gas leak.
“It’s assumed that it was a gas leak, but the information is yet to be confirmed. One injured individual is reported; he is receiving medical attention at the ‘Callixto García’ Hospital. The remaining hotel guests were evacuated,” stated the journalist.
The source also stated that no “major structural damages” were reported and that the situation is “under control at the site.”
According to Alonso, firefighters, police and personnel from the Public Health Ministry were at the explosion site; authorities from the municipality of Old Havana were also present.
News of the accident went viral immediately, less than one year from the Saratoga Hotel tragedy, where 99 people were injured, and 47 killed (25 men and 22 women).
That explosion, which according to the mayor of Old Havana took place when a liquid gas tank was being installed in the hotel, caused the whole façade of the building located across from Havana’s Capitol Building, to go flying through the air.
The dead were mostly hotel workers who were inside the building at the time of the explosion, and passer byes; the majority was Cuban, except for a female Spanish tourist who was on vacation and was walking at that moment along one of the hotel’s side streets.
Among the victims of the Saratoga Hotel tragedy also were four children and a pregnant woman.
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