The Cuban government reported this Thursday that the death toll from the explosion at the Saratoga hotel in Havana amounts to 45 after the identification of the last body found, thus ending the rescue efforts.
The number of injured rises to 99 (one more than at noon), of which 15 are hospitalized and 39 have been discharged, according to data from the Ministry of Public Health (Minsap).
All those killed by the explosion are Cubans -including four minors and a pregnant woman-, except for a young Spanish tourist, whose ashes have already been repatriated.
The establishment was not open to the public at the time of the explosion. The 51 workers who were inside the hotel were adapting it after the pandemic for its reopening, scheduled for May 10.
The Cuban Government assures that the cause of the accident was a gas leak when a liquefied gas tanker truck was recharging a tank of the establishment.
The mayor of the municipality of Old Havana, Alexis Acosta, said that, once the rescue was completed, the neighboring buildings would be recovered. At least 17 buildings, in addition to the hotel, have suffered damage of various kinds.
"We will move on to other priority property recovery tasks, for which there is a timetable"he explained.
Cuban President Miguel DÃaz-Canel decreed this Thursday two days of official mourning, from 6:00 a.m. on May 13 to 12:00 p.m. on May 14, the official newspaper Granma reported.
The Saratoga was built in 1880 and from 1911 it functioned as a hotel. Its last restoration took place in 2005, when it underwent major rehabilitation.