Four people were killed and many others injured when a large explosion struck several floors of a hotel in the Cuban capital, Havana, according to reports.
Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel said the explosion at the Saratoga Hotel was not due to a bomb, adding that authorities were investigating the cause.
Mr Diaz-Canel said the blast may have been caused by a gas leak, The Guardian reported. Cuban authorities say at least 13 people are missing.
Posting photos of the chaos, CNN’s Havana office chief Patrick Opman wrote that the area around the “iconic hotel” was a “terrible scene of destruction.”
It has been shown that at least three floors of the building are blown with images from the stage as clouds of dust and smoke rise into the air.
“The party’s first secretary in Havana, Luis Antonio Torres Iribar, explains that the deaths of four people have been confirmed so far. Search and rescue efforts continue at the hotel, where people can still be trapped, “the Cuban presidency wrote on Twitter.
Police and firefighters go through the rubble in search of survivors. Buses and cars nearby were also destroyed, CNN reported. Rescuers also arrived at the hotel as officers closed the area, including nearby buildings.
The hotel is located in Havana’s Old Town, next to a school and not far from the historic Capitol Building.
After being built as a warehouse in 1880, it was rebuilt as a hotel in 1933. According to the hotel’s website, it reopened in 2005 after renovations.
“Although we were unable to verify the origin of his name, it probably originated in the American resort town of Saratoga in New York State,” the hotel’s website said.
“Our solidarity with the victims and those affected, as well as the people of this dear fraternal nation,” Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard wrote on Twitter.
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