Emergency workers are scrambling to free up people believed to be trapped in the rubble of a collapsed hotel building in Argentina.
The 10-story Dubrovnik hotel in the city of Villa Gessell, about 230 miles (370 kilometers) from the capital Buenos Aires on the Atlantic coast, collapsed early on Tuesday morning, according to a statement from the municipal authorities.
Firefighters, paramedics and police were working to remove debris in order to reach people who are thought to be buried.
Firefighters have managed to rescue an elderly woman from the rubble alive, while an 80-year-old man has been killed, local newspaper Pagina 12 reported, citing provincial security minister Javier Alonso.
Mr Alonso was quoted as saying that there were no guests in the hotel, but that there were workers staying in another part of the hotel, which was built in 1986.
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He stated that the courts had ordered the arrest of four people in connection with the hotel’s collapse, and that prosecutors had opened an investigation.
More than 300 firefighters, police and other rescue officials were at the scene on Tuesday, in a rescue operation already ongoing for more than eight hours, online outlet Infobae reported, citing the city’s mayor Gustavo Barrera as warning that the adjacent building is also at risk of collapse.
The missing include workers from a construction site at the hotel that was apparently operating “clandestinely, without complying with municipal regulations,” according to the statement.
The hotel, which opened in Argentina in1986, was undergoing a range of restorations and modifications.
The statement from the municipality said work at the site had already been “detected and halted” back in August after not having the proper permissions to proceed.
Reported by CNN
