Part of a hotel in a winemaking town on the Mosel River in western Germany collapsed, leaving two people dead and several others trapped in the wreckage, authorities said Wednesday.
Fourteen people were in the hotel in Kroev when one story of the building collapsed at about 11 p.m. Tuesday. Police said five were able to get out of the building unhurt because they weren’t in the part that collapsed. But others were trapped.
An operation is ongoing to try to save them. But reaching them is proving to be difficult because the collapse of one story left two ceilings lying on top of each other, according to Joerg Teusch, fire and disaster protection inspector for the Bernkastel-Wittlich district.
Harald Tittel/picture alliance via Getty Images
“We have to proceed with caution because the entire building structure is like a house of cards. If we pull on the wrong card, this building is sure to collapse,” he said.
Among those saved was a 2-year-old child pulled out unharmed and the child’s mother, who was rescued with minor injuries. The child’s father is still trapped, but Teusch said there’s hope that he’ll be rescued soon, too.
“We all had tears in our eyes and I still feel the same now. The whole story has a very emotional component, because when we arrived, when we looked at the building, it looked like we weren’t taking anyone out,” he said at a news conference.
Teusch said the cause of the collapse hasn’t been determined.
Regional public broadcaster SWR said witnesses reported hearing a bang and seeing a large cloud of dust at the time of the collapse.
The operation to recover those who are alive but trapped is proving difficult, involving 250 emergency workers, including drone specialists, as well as rescue dogs.
“There was no option (to use) stairs, house entrances, doors or windows because they were simply no longer there,” Teusch said.
Authorities evacuated 31 people from the area immediately around the damaged building.
Kroev is on a picturesque section of the Mosel near the larger resort town of Traben-Trarbach. It has about 2,200 inhabitants.