Overcrowding suspected in deadly restaurant collapse on Mallorca
Sixteen people remain in hospital for injuries from the collapse of a crowded restaurant on Thursday night that killed four on the popular Spanish holiday destination of Playa de Palma on the island of Mallorca.
Authorities identified the dead on Friday as two German women, aged 20 and 30, as well as a 23-year-old Spanish woman and a 44-year-old Senegalese man. Authorities believe the German women were tourists spending holiday on the island.
Seven of the injured were in a critical condition as of Friday morning, authorities said. The remaining nine were all seriously injured but out of life-threatening danger.
One of the women who died worked in the restaurant, according to reports in Spain's El País newspaper and other media.
The Playa de Palma area of the island is particularly popular with younger German holidaymakers, who flock to the island during the late spring and summer months.
The Medusa Beach Club building, located directly on the beach, collapsed at around 8:30 pm on Thursday, with the first floor plunging down to the basement, where many guests were eating dinner, according to El País, which cited witnesses.
The neighbouring bars and residential buildings were evacuated due to the risk of collapse and the area was cordoned off.
An initial investigation revealed that the overloading of the second floor was a possible cause of the collapse, said the chief of the local fire brigade, Eder García.
Early on Friday morning, emergency services were still searching for victims under the rubble but had not found any additional victims. A police spokeswoman told dpa shortly before midnight on Thursday that "with 90% certainty" there were likely no more people trapped amid the rubble.
Psychologists and doctors were still attending to slightly injured people, relatives of the victims and visibly shaken witnesses to the tragedy hours after the collapse.
Javier, a resident of Playa de Palma, told the local newspaper Última Hora that he was in the immediate vicinity when the building on Cartago Street quickly collapsed. He described the structure tumbling like a house of cards, but with a loud roar.
"It sounded like a bomb," he said, according to the newspaper. Other people said that the building had only been renovated "a few years ago," the newspaper reported.
