Local collapse
Dead and injured at Ballermann – “Like a bomb”
It is suspected that tourists are among those affected. Photo
© Isaac Buj/EUROPA PRESS/dpa
Within seconds, the Germans’ favorite party mile became a place of horror: When a restaurant on Ballermann collapsed, there were fatalities – and there are fears for the lives of many injured.
According to the Mallorcan authorities, the victims were a man and three women. It was not immediately known whether there were any Germans among those affected. The head of the Palma fire service, Eder García, said that most of those affected were foreigners “of various nationalities and middle-aged”. One of the women who died worked in the bar, wrote the newspaper “El País” and other media.
The disaster shook not only the Balearic Islands but the whole of Spain late in the evening. In Madrid, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez expressed his condolences to the families of the victims on X, formerly Twitter, and stressed: “I am closely following the consequences of the terrible collapse on Palma beach.”
Overload of the first floor possible cause
The accident happened right on the beach, just a few streets away from the iconic Megapark and Bierkönig bars. The Medusa Beach Club building collapsed at around 8:30 p.m. The first floor collapsed immediately down to the basement, where many guests were having dinner, reported “El País” and other media, citing eyewitnesses. An initial investigation revealed that overloading of the first floor was a possible cause of the collapse, said fire chief García.
In the early morning, emergency services were still feverishly searching for victims under the rubble. However, shortly before midnight, a police spokesman had given good news: “With 90 percent certainty” there were no more victims under the rubble, he said when asked by the dpa. But they would search as long as necessary, said an officer. Possibly “for many more hours”.
Javier, a resident of Playa de Palma, was nearby when the building on Cartago Street collapsed quickly like a house of cards but with a loud bang. “It sounded like a bomb,” he told a reporter from the regional newspaper Última Hora. Other people said the building had only been renovated “a few years ago.” The part on the first floor that collapsed had been used as a chill-out area.
Many guests in the restaurant at the time of the collapse
At the time of the collapse, many guests were in the restaurant, which also served as a cocktail bar with live music, media reported. Police, fire and Mallorcan emergency services were quickly on site. The neighboring bars and houses were evacuated due to the risk of collapse and the area was cordoned off. Psychologists and doctors were still at the scene of the accident, caring for the slightly injured, relatives of the victims and visibly shaken witnesses to the tragedy, hours after the collapse.
The regional newspapers “Diario de Mallorca” and “Última Hora” reported that up to 1,000 people had gathered in front of the accident site immediately after the collapse. Relatives of employees feared for their loved ones, onlookers debated the possible causes. The police had to repeatedly ask the crowd to be quiet so that the rescue teams could hear the voices of possible survivors under the rubble.
The regional minister-president Marga Prohens, the mayor of Palma, Jaime Martínez, and the first deputy mayor, Javier Bonet, also rushed to the beach to see the tragedy and the rescue work on site. Mayor Martínez declared three days of mourning.
After the start of the party season, numerous tourists have been returning to Playa de Palma since the end of April. Unlike visitors to the English party hotspot Magaluf west of Palma, the majority of them come from Germany.