Smiling tourists were seen posing for photographs outside a destroyed Spanish beach club which locals say may have collapsed partly because of overtourism.
Two German tourists and two local workers died on Thursday night when the rooftop area of the Medusa Beach Club collapsed onto diners eating and drinking on floors below.
According to the Balearic Islands emergency service coordinator, seven other people are in hospital with severe injuries and nine more are described as being seriously injured.
Medusa Beach Club on Wednesday announced it had renovated its rooftop restaurant in an Instagram post.
It shared a picture of the terrace on social media with a glass balcony looking over Palma’s beach with the caption “Totally different, New rooftop”.
The chief of planning at Palma city council said an investigation has been opened to determine whether the nightclub had operated with the necessary permits and if there had been a recent renovation that may have required legal approval.
It appears that part of the structure of the rooftop terrace collapsed because of excess weight. According to Eder García, Palma’s fire service chief, the supporting structure of the terrace gave way and crashed down onto diners below.
Spaniards expressed anger at the tragedy and blamed a lack of control over building in the popular tourism area.
Economist María José Dueñas said: “This is what happens when toxic touristification, greedy hoteliers take over entire cities/areas.
“The floor of the Medusa Beach Club restaurant has collapsed due to excess capacity, there are four dead and dozens injured. Neither security nor urban regulations, everything is speculation.”
Francisco Nogales, chairman of the Palma Beach residents’ association, told reporters on Friday: “We knew something like this could happen.
“These buildings are between 80 and 90 years old, inspections are not carried out and their condition deteriorates, so they need to be reinforced to be able to carry out these type of activities.”
Mr Garcí said of the collapse: “Investigations are still ongoing, but everything points to a combination of an outdated structure and excess weight.”
A police spokesman agreed that the terrace came down because of “excessive weight”.
Mariama Syll, 23, a Spanish waitress at the beach club was killed in the collapse.
Also killed was 44-year-old Abdoulaye Diop, a man of Senegalese origin who is reported to have worked in the Palma Beach area as a nightclub doorman.
The other two dead are reported to be female friends aged 20 and 30 who were on holiday together from Germany.
Diop became a local hero after he and a friend rescued a man drowning in the sea off Palma Beach seven years ago.
“It was two degrees and the water was freezing but when you see a person in that situation you act without thinking to save their life,” Diop said, he told a local newspaper in 2017.
Those near the beachfront restaurant and bar at the time of the collapse say that they heard a loud bang just after 8pm on Thursday as the rooftop structure gave way. According to reports the venue was busy at the time of collapse with some customers dancing on the upstairs terrace.
The rooftop space fell directly onto the ground floor of the restaurant, causing a further collapse of the structure downwards into the building’s basement and crushing customers.
Emergency teams including firefighters, ambulances and police arrived quickly at the scene of the collapse and began to remove the dead and injured from the rubble.
Local police asked bystanders to move away and to remain silent as rescue workers worked into the night in the search for more people buried under the rubble.
Palma Beach is a lively resort area that is especially popular with German tourists.
Palma city council has declared three days of official mourning for the dead.
Pedro Sánchez, the Spanish prime minister, offered his condolences to the families of the dead and sent “best wishes for a speedy recovery to the injured”.
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