Collapse of a bar-restaurant in Majorca: we are beginning to understand why the tragedy happened and it is not due to chance

The roof of a two-story restaurant, located by the sea in Palma de Mallorca, collapsed in the evening this Thursday, May 23, 2024, killing at least four people and injuring around twenty others. .

The bar-restaurant where four people died on Thursday in Palma de Mallorca, in the Spanish Balearic archipelago, did not have a license to open the roof terrace which collapsed and had just been the subject of unauthorized work, authorities said on Tuesday.

"I can confirm, based on the" reports available, that the establishment did not have a " rsquo;activity nor authorization to occupy the terrace" which collapsed, declared the mayor of Palma, Jaime Martínez Llabrés.

According to the mayor, who said he was basing himself on reports from the firefighters and urban planning services, the Medusa Beach Club had not filed any building permit to carry out work on this roof terrace.

According to the Palma fire chief, Eder Garcia, a mortar screed was in fact recently poured on this terrace, located on the first floor. This resulted in "overweight" for the entire structure, he said.

The probable causes of the incident are therefore a "combination" of two factors: & ;quot;excess weight due to the work carried out" and an "overload linked to an influx of people" on the roof terrace, where around twenty customers were gathered at the time of the tragedy, concluded Mr. Martínez Llabrés.

The collapse Thursday evening of the terrace of this establishment located on the seafront of Palma de Mallorca, where the tourist season is already in full swing, led to the death of two young German tourists as well as a Senegalese and a Spanish employee.

An injured person still hospitalized

According to the authorities, the two young German women were on vacation on the island while the Senegalese – who made a lot of news about him in the local media in 2017 for having saved a swimmer from drowning – and the Spanish employee of the bar-restaurant lived in Majorca.

Sixteen people were also injured in this accident, including tourists of Dutch and German nationality. According to Jaime Martínez Llabrés, only one of these injured people is currently still hospitalized.

The building included the Medusa Beach Club, a bar-restaurant, on the first floor and ground floor, and a basement bar, CocoRico. According to Eder García, most of the victims were found in the basement bar.

In a message published on social networks on Wednesday, the day before the tragedy, the Medusa Beach Club promoted its "new rooftop& quot;.

The archipelago, located in the Mediterranean Sea and known for its crystal clear waters and heavenly beaches, is the second most touristy region in Spain after Catalonia. Particularly popular with German, British and Dutch tourists, these islands welcomed 14.4 million foreign tourists last year, a record.

The Palma accident relaunches the debate on the non-compliance with administrative procedures and safety rules by certain establishments in Spain, almost eight months after the death of 13 people in the ;fire at a nightclub in Murcia (south-east).

According to the Murcia town hall, this establishment had in fact been the subject of an administrative closure order issued a year previously and no longer had a license. However, this closure was not implemented, which sparked criticism of the municipality.

Questioned about possible failings on the part of the administration, the mayor of Palma de Mallorca assured Tuesday that the town hall could not "put a civil servant in each of the 5 000 establishments" of his city, while insisting that the laws were made to be "applied".