One dead, nine missing after illegal renovations destroy Argentina’s Villa Gesell hotel

Argentine rescuers on Tuesday tried to get several people trapped under the debris of a ten-story hotel building that collapsed in the seaside resort of Villa Hesel.

At least one person died when a Dubrovnik aparthotel that was undergoing unauthorized renovations collapsed in the middle of the night.

According to the rescuers, nine more people are considered missing.

According to local officials, some of the missing people were working at the site.

“The hotel exploded, it collapsed on itself, and the top three floors caved in and crushed 25 percent of the building next door,” said Javier Alonso, security minister for Buenos Aires province, where Villa Gesel is located.

According to him, the neighbors heard something “like a creak and vibration of the floor, and after a few minutes she fell.”

He warned that the rescue process would be “slow” given the amount of debris, but stressed that survivors are sometimes found under rubble for up to a week after such collapses.

The body of a man in his eighties was found among the rubble.

Between seven and nine people are believed to be still trapped under the rubble, fire department operations manager Hugo Piriz said.

“It was like a rocket falling and splitting the building in two,” a neighbor told TN.

A 79-year-old woman from a nearby house was rescued alive with injuries after she knocked on a pipe.

“We got closer to the noise and could hear a voice. It was hard work, it took several hours,” Piriz told reporters.

More than 300 rescuers searched for other survivors using drones, service dogs and probes with cameras and microphones.

The hotel was built in 1986.

The municipality of Villa Hesel said that the work on the site was carried out “in secret, without following municipal regulations” and that the authorities had already stopped it in August.

The foreman and three masons were detained for questioning.

Relatives of the victims gathered outside the building to wait for news of their loved ones as a bulldozer removed the debris.

“Time is running out and I want my son to be alive. I want my son to be alive and I want him to be whole,” said Silvana Perhauk, the mother of one of the missing.

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