Two Dead, One Still Trapped in German Hotel Collapse

AFP/APP

Kroev: Two people have died and several others were trapped under the rubble for hours on Wednesday after a hotel partially collapsed in the Moselle valley in western Germany.

A floor in the hotel in Kroev, a town some 110 kilometers (68 miles) west of Frankfurt, collapsed for unknown reasons at around 11:00 pm (2100 GMT) on Tuesday, police said in a statement. A woman and a man were killed in the accident, police spokesman Joerg Teusch told journalists on Wednesday.

Of the 14 people inside at the time, five managed to get out. Six others were rescued over the course of the day, but one person remained trapped late Wednesday evening, authorities later said. One man, a child, and two women were the first to be rescued with minor injuries earlier Wednesday.

The rescue operation was difficult “as the building could only be entered… with the utmost caution,” police said. But by mid-afternoon, two more people had been rescued, leaving just one person still trapped inside.

Twenty-one residents from the local neighborhood were evacuated, and some 250 search-and-rescue staff were working at the site. The Moselle valley, which encompasses parts of Germany, France, and Luxembourg, is a popular holiday spot with picturesque vineyards and traditional taverns.

The basic structure of the hotel was built in the 17th century, according to police, but two-and-a-half storeys were added in the 1980s. An investigation into the cause of the collapse has been launched, public prosecutor Peter Fritzen said in Kroev.

Autopsies on the deceased are also being carried out. Details on the identities of the victims have not yet been released.

Interior Minister Nancy Faeser called images of the collapse “shocking.” “My sympathies and thoughts go out to the families of those killed,” she said, wishing those injured a speedy recovery.

Dutch media reported that a family of three from Urk, a small fishing town in the north of the Netherlands, was among those caught up in the incident. The mother and child were reportedly pulled out alive in the morning and the father rescued later in the day.

The woman was named as 23-year-old Edi Hoefnagel-Visser, a journalist with Het Urkerland local newspaper. Her husband, Mark Hoefnagel, 26, was “seriously injured” in the accident, according to Dutch public broadcaster NOS.