Palm. A restaurant on Ballermann collapsed like a house of cards – only with much more noise. At midnight, emergency services were still searching for victims under the rubble.
Tragedy at Ballermann: At least four people died when a restaurant collapsed in Playa de Palma, Mallorca, at night. In addition, 16 people were injured, some of them seriously, police on the Spanish resort island said. Nothing was initially known about the cause of the accident or the identity of the victims. However, it can be assumed that, in addition to restaurant staff and local visitors, there are also tourists among those affected. Around midnight, emergency services were still frantically searching for victims under the rubble.
The accident happened right on the beach, just a few streets away from the cult bars Megapark and Bierkönig. The Medusa Beach Club building collapsed at around 8:30 pm. The first floor collapsed into the basement, the newspaper “El País” and other media reported, citing eyewitnesses. Shortly before midnight, a police spokesman gave good news: “With 90 percent certainty”, there were no more victims under the rubble, he told dpa when asked.
Javier, a resident of Playa de Palma, was nearby when the building on Cartago Street collapsed quickly like a house of cards, but with a lot of noise. “It looked like a bomb,” he told a reporter from the regional newspaper Última Hora. Other people said the building was renovated “a few years ago.” The part of the first floor that collapsed was used as a relaxation area.
Restaurant was packed at the time of the collapse
At the time of the collapse, the restaurant, which in part also functioned as a cocktail bar with live music, was full, the media reported. Around midnight, police, fire and emergency services units were still on duty at the scene of the accident. Psychologists still cared for the victims and witnesses of the tragedy.
Around 1,000 people gathered in front of the accident site immediately after the collapse, reported the regional newspapers “Diario de Mallorca” and “Última Hora”. Relatives of employees feared for their loved ones. The mayor of Palma, Jaime Martínez, and the first vice-mayor, Javier Bonet, also quickly went to the beach to see the tragedy and the rescue work at the scene.
After the start of the festive season, Playa de Palma has been full of tourists again since the end of April, the majority of whom – unlike visitors to the English festive hotspot Magaluf, west of Palma – come from Germany.
© dpa-infocom, dpa:240523-99-143684/5 (dpa)