Part of a hotel in a wine 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 a floor of the building collapsed at 11pm on Tuesday. Police said five were able to get out of the building unharmed because they were not in the section that collapsed. But others were trapped.
An operation is underway to try and save them. But reaching them has proved difficult because the collapse of one floor left two roofs on top of each other, according to Joerg Teusch, fire and disaster protection inspector for the district of Bernkastel-Wittlich.
Harald Tittel/image alliance via Getty Images
“We have to proceed with caution because the whole building structure is like a house of cards. If we play the wrong cards, this building will surely collapse,” he said.
Among those rescued was a 2-year-old child who escaped unharmed and the child’s mother, who was rescued with minor injuries. The child’s father is still trapped, but Teusch said there is hope that he too will be rescued soon.
“We all had tears in our eyes and I still feel the same way now. The whole story has a very emotional component because when we arrived, when we looked at the building, it looked like we didn’t take anyone out,” he told a news conference.
Teusch said the cause of the collapse has not 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.
Two people died, and the operation to recover those alive but trapped is proving difficult, involving 250 rescue workers, including drone specialists, as well as rescue dogs.
“There was no option (to use) stairs, house entrances, doors or windows because they just weren’t there anymore,” Teusch said.
Authorities evacuated 31 people from the area immediately around the damaged building.
Kroev is located on a picturesque part of the Mosel near the larger resort of Traben-Trarbach. It has approximately 2,200 inhabitants.