Spain restaurant roof collapse kills 4, injures 21

Emergency services staff work after a two-story restaurant collapsed, killing four and injuring 21 people on Playa de Palma, south of the Spanish Mediterranean island’s capital Palma de Mallorca, on May 23, 2024. Four people died and 21 were injured after the roof of a two-story restaurant collapsed on Spain’s Mediterranean island of Mallorca on May 23, 2024, AFP reported. (Photo by Jaime REINA / AFP)

PALMA, Spain — The roof of a restaurant in Spain’s popular tourist island of Mallorca collapsed on Thursday, killing four people and injuring 21 others, local rescuers said.

“There are four dead and around 21 injured,” an emergency services spokeswoman said, adding that “several nationalities” were among the victims.

The emergency services wrote on X that seven of the victims were in a “very serious” state and nine others had “serious” injuries, with different hospitals admitting them.

Local media said the two-storey building was in the Playa de Palma area to the south of the Mediterranean island’s capital Palma de Mallorca.

Firefighters were deployed in numbers while ambulances whisked the victims to the hospital and the street was sealed off by police, an AFP journalist saw.

Rescuers were continuing to work at the scene to find more people stuck under the rubble, they wrote on social media X (formerly Twitter).

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Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez conveyed his condolences to the victims’ families on X after what he called a “terrible collapse.”

The central government was prepared to send “all the necessary resources” to help the regional authorities cope, he added.

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Mallorca is one of Spain’s Balearic Islands, whose pristine waters and beaches attract more tourists than all Spanish regions after Catalonia.

More than 14 million tourists visited the islands last year, according to official figures.