AFP
Four dead in Balearic restaurant collapse
Four people died and around twenty others injured Thursday in the collapse of a restaurant located on the very tourist island of Majorca, in the Spanish Balearic archipelago, emergency services said. “There are four dead and 21 injured to varying degrees,” a spokesperson for the archipelago’s emergency services told AFP. People of “several nationalities” are among the victims, she said, without being able to provide further details. Seven of the injured are in “very serious” condition and nine are in “serious” condition, the officials said. rescue services in a message on and their beaches, are the second most touristy region in Spain after Catalonia. In 2023, they welcomed more than 14 million tourists, according to official figures. The archipelago, of which Majorca is the main island, is particularly popular with German and British tourists. The tragedy occurred at the end of the day in the tourist area of Playa de Palma when “the roof of a two-story building” sheltering a restaurant, collapsed, explained the spokesperson for the emergency services. This area is located south of Palma. Many firefighters were deployed on the scene while ambulances transported the injured to the hospital, an AFP photographer noted on the spot. – “It was horrible” -” It was horrible,” a firefighter told the newspaper Última Hora, adding that when he arrived at the scene, he saw people crying and screaming around the rubble. The emergency services “continue to work on site” to check if victims are not yet trapped under the rubble, they specified in a message published on the social network located on Cartago Street in Playa de Palma, are currently unknown, but according to witnesses cited by local media, the roof collapsed on part of the first floor. This area was very busy at the end of the day when the tourist season is already in full swing in the Balearic Islands, an archipelago also including the islands of Ibiza, Menorca and Formentera. In a message on the social network Spanish Pedro Sánchez indicated that he was “closely following the consequences of the terrible collapse that occurred on Palma beach”. The socialist leader also “presented his condolences to the families of the deceased” and offered “all the necessary means and personnel” to the central state to help the regional authorities in the management of this accident. The president of the Balearic Islands region, Marga Prohens, declared herself “shocked by the information received about the collapse” and expressed her thoughts “to the families of the four people who lost their lives in this tragic incident”.The restaurant is located by the sea, on an avenue which has shops and leisure establishments.In 2009, the collapse of a building three floors in Palma de Mallorca left seven people dead, including two Germans and three Colombians.bur-du/mg/juf/ib
