The roof of a restaurant in Spain's popular tourist island of Mallorca collapsed on Thursday, May 23, killing four people and injuring 21 others, local rescuers said. "There are four dead and around 21 injured," an emergency services spokeswoman said, adding that "several nationalities" were among the victims. The emergency services wrote on X that seven of the victims were in a "very serious" state and nine others had "serious" injuries, with different hospitals admitting them.
Local media said the two-story building was in the Playa de Palma area to the south of the Mediterranean island's capital Palma de Mallorca. Firefighters were deployed in numbers while ambulances whisked the victims to the hospital and the street was sealed off by police, an Agence France-Presse (AFP) journalist saw. Rescuers were continuing to work at the scene to find further people stuck under the rubble, they wrote on X.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez conveyed his condolences to the victims' families on X after what he called a "terrible collapse". The central government was prepared to send "all the necessary resources" to help the regional authorities cope, he added. Mallorca is one of Spain's Balearic Islands, whose pristine waters and beaches attract more tourists than all Spanish regions after Catalonia. More than 14 million tourists visited the islands last year, according to official figures.