BERLIN (AP) — Part of a hotel in a winemaking town on the Mosel River in western Germany collapsed, leaving two people dead and three 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.
Rescuers were able to contact some of them by cellphone. But getting to them proved 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.
“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.
Four people were rescued Wednesday morning. 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 was among three people still trapped, but Teusch said there is hope that he will 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 structural collapse hasn't yet been determined.
Regional public broadcaster SWR said that witnesses reported hearing a bang and seeing a large cloud of dust at the time of the collapse.
Two people, a man and a woman, died. 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,” Teusch said.
Authorities 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. Officials didn't have immediate information on the identity of those who were rescued.
Kroev is on a picturesque section of the Mosel near the larger resort town of Traben-Trarbach. It has about 2,200 inhabitants.
The original hotel building is believed to date back to the 17th century, but additional stories were added around 1980, Teusch said. He added that building work had taken place on Tuesday, but it wasn't clear whether there was any link between that and the collapse.
