UPDATED: German hotel partially collapses, kills two, traps others
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A hotel in Germany’s picturesque Moselle wine valley collapsed overnight, killing two people, local police said on Wednesday, as rescuers worked urgently to pluck the three remaining trapped guests from the rubble.
One woman’s body was recovered but emergency responders have not yet been able to reach the body of the second victim, a male, rescue operation chief Joerg Teusch told reporters.
The hotel that partially collapsed – identified by a Reuters witness as the Reichsschenke “Zum Ritter Goetz” – is named after a medieval knight who is said to have once drunk at its wood-panelled tavern and has been immortalised in a play by Wolfgang von Goethe.
Four people have been rescued, none of them with serious injuries, Teusch said, in a complex operation as the two-storey building was unstable after its upper floor caved in late on Tuesday.
Among those rescued was a two-year-old child, who was not injured, and the child’s parents, with whom rescuers were able to establish contact overnight.
Michael Ebling, interior minister in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate, said he was hopeful that the remaining three people would be saved as rescuers worked with extreme caution due to the risk of further collapse.
The cause of the accident was not yet clear. Investigations would begin once the rescue operation was complete, state prosecutor Peter Fritzen said.
