A fire department vehicle stands in front of a collapsed hotel in Kroev, Germany Wednesday, Aug. 7, 2024.
| Photo Credit: AP

Part of a hotel in a winemaking town on the Mosel River in western Germany collapsed, authorities said, leaving two people dead and trapping seven others in the wreckage overnight. The last person was rescued some 24 hours later, on Wednesday (August 7, 2024) night.

Fourteen people were in the hotel in Kroev when one story of the building collapsed at about 11 p.m. on Tuesday. Police said five were able to get out of the building unhurt because they were not in the part that collapsed, but others were trapped.

Rescuers were able to contact some of them by cellphone. But getting to them proved 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.

“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 as rescuers worked through the wreckage on Wednesday morning.

A woman who was among the seven trapped was the last to be rescued Wednesday night, police said.

Michael Ebling, the top security official in Rhineland-Palatinate state, where Kroev is located, said the fact that so many people could be rescued “stands out in view of this event, the damage and the dimensions one can see with the naked eye.”

Among the first to be saved was a 2-year-old child, who was pulled out unharmed, and the child’s mother, who was rescued with minor injuries. The child’s father was rescued later.

“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,” Mr. Teusch said at a news conference.

Mr. Teusch said the cause of the structural collapse is yet to be determined.

The original hotel building is believed to date back to the 17th century, but additional stories were added around 1980, he said. He added that work was being done on the building on Tuesday, but it wasn’t clear whether there was any link between that and the collapse.

Regional public broadcaster SWR said that witnesses reported hearing a bang and seeing a large cloud of dust at the time of the collapse.

The rescue operation involved 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,” Mr. Teusch said.

Authorities also evacuated 21 people from three buildings immediately around the damaged hotel. The hotel guests at the time of the collapse were largely German, apart from a Dutch family.

Two Germans, a man and a woman, died. Rescuers were able to recover one of the bodies but police said they would have to remove a section of the building on Thursday to recover the other.

Kroev is located along a picturesque section of the Mosel near the larger resort town of Traben-Trarbach. It has about 2,200 inhabitants.

Berlin:

Rescue teams were Wednesday working to free people trapped after part of a hotel collapsed in western Germany, killing two and injuring several others, authorities said.

A floor in the hotel in Kroev, a town some 110 kilometres (68 miles) west of Frankfurt, collapsed for unknown reasons 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.

Emergency services rescued one man, a child and two women on Wednesday morning.

“We were able to make contact with the seven people buried and four of them were rescued with minor injuries, so it’s a miracle,” Teusch said.

Three people remain trapped under the rubble, he said, and are “probably seriously injured”.

The rescue operation was difficult “as the building could only be entered… with the utmost caution”, police said.

Thirty-one residents from the local neighbourhood were evacuated and some 250 search-and-rescue staff were working at the site.

Dutch media reported that a Dutch family of three was among those caught up in the incident.

The mother and child had been pulled out alive but the father was still trapped, Dutch national news agency ANP said.

The family were reportedly from Urk, a small fishing town in the north of the Netherlands.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Debris are seen after the collapse of a hotel in Kroev, Germany Wednesday, Aug. 7, 2024.
| Photo Credit: AP

One person has died and eight others are trapped, some with severe injuries, after a hotel partially collapsed overnight near the banks of Germany’s river Moselle, local police said on Wednesday, August 7, 2024.

“The dead body has been located but could not yet be recovered,” police said in a statement, adding that they have been able to establish contact with some of those still trapped.

“Due to the nature of the damage, this is an extremely demanding operation,” the statement said, adding that the building in the town of Kroev could only be entered by emergency responders with the utmost caution.

Images shared by local broadcaster SWR showed the building’s gable roof slanted backwards and parts of the ground floor crushed.

Investigators believe 14 people were in the building when the upper floor caved in at around 11 p.m. (2100 GMT) on Tuesday, August 6, 2024, five of whom were able to escape without injury.

Police further added that 31 neighbours have also been evacuated from their homes in the damaged building for their safety.

The Moselle region attracts tourists for its picturesque towns and vineyards on steep river banks.