At least 10 Dutch people injured in restaurant collapse in Mallorca

At least 10 Dutch people were injured in the collapse of a restaurant in Mallorca on Thursday evening, a spokesperson for the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. The Dutch tourists reportedly suffered non-life-threatening injuries.

The mayor of the capital Palma de Mallorca had previously stated that eight people were still in hospital and that no one's life was in danger. However, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs does not know how many people are in hospital and is providing consular assistance.

Police reported that a total of 14 people have been taken to hospital. This concerns eight men and six women between the ages of 24 and 34. In addition to the 10 Dutch nationals, three Germans and one Spaniard were also injured. Nine of them were still in hospital on Friday evening, according to Spanish media.

At least four people were killed when a packed terrace on the upper floor of the Medusa Beach Club collapsed and came crashing down onto the crowded terrace on the ground floor last week. Those killed include a 23-year-old woman from Spain, a 44-year-old man from Senegal, and two women from Germany aged 20 and 30, police said. The cause of the collapse is still being investigated.

🇪🇦|| Al menos cuatro muertos y decenas de heridos tras derrumbarse un restaurante en Palma de Mallorca.
El restaurante "Medusa Beach Club" situado en la Playa de Palma está ubicado en la planta baja de un edificio. Según algunas fuentes cayó hasta el sótano pic.twitter.com/TjC2FV0rvV

— Dan-i-El (@Danielibertari0) May 23, 2024

The fire department said that the building had an "old structure" and that the terrace might not have been able to support the weight. The building was very crowded at the time of the accident. According to the fire department, most of the people that evening were in the basement, where there was a bar.

According to local media, the investigation will focus on the roof terrace, deemed "non-accessible" during an inspection. This concerns the Medusa Beach Club in El Arenal, close to the airport in the capital Palma de Mallorca. It is located on a boulevard, where many tourists come.

Dutch tourists Wessel Roos, 21, and his girlfriend Madelin Muijs, 20, were eating just a few meters away from the beachside restaurant when the collapse happened, BBC reported. “Suddenly we heard an explosion. It was not a big boom, but we just knew something was up. You could also feel the vibration of the ceiling falling down. It was chaos and there were people screaming," the two Dutch told the British broadcaster.

According to witnesses, the venue was packed when the collapse happened, NOS wrote. Furthermore, the Dutch broadcaster found out, based on sources, that the venue's owner is Dutch.