Neither bomb nor attack, it is an unfortunate accident, Diaz-Canel stresses

HAVANA, Cuba, May 6 (ACN) It was neither a bomb nor an attack, it was an unfortunate accident, Cuban president Miguel Diaz-Canel said today about the explosion that took place this morning at the Saratoga Hotel in Havana, with a preliminary toll of nine dead and some thirty injured.

Our hospitals are working with all the injured and we continue working on rescue activities, said the first secretary of the Central Committee of the Cuban communist party and president of the country, according to a tweet from the presidency.

Before noon Diaz-Canel arrived in the explosion site, and after a tour of hospital facilities that receive the injured, he returned to the vicinity of the Saratoga hotel, where he was updated on the rescue and salvage actions.

Cuban leader was at the Calixto Garcia hospital, where he learned about the condition of the twenty or so patients being treated there.

Manuel Marrero Cruz, Cuban PM, and Jose Angel Portal Miranda, head of public health, also visited the Hermanos Ameijeiras Hospital, where he was informed about the state of health of the hospitalized patients.

In statements to the press, Portal Miranda announced that at 7:00 p.m. the ministry of public health will provide updated information on the state of health of the victims of the accident, which, according to the authorities, was due to a gas leak.