After the explosion at a luxury hotel in the old town of the Cuban capital Havana, the death toll has risen to 18.
Among them were a pregnant woman and a child, as the Presidential Office of the socialist Caribbean state announced on Twitter on Friday (local time).
64 people had come to hospital for treatment, including 14 minors.
So far, the government had spoken of nine dead and around 40 injured.
A strong explosion had largely destroyed the Hotel Saratoga on Friday morning (local time).
According to President Miguel Díaz-Canel, who got an idea of the situation on site, it was an accident in which a gas tank exploded.
He ruled out an attack.
Gas was delivered
A witness reported that LPG was being delivered to the hotel at the moment of the explosion, reported Granma, the newspaper of the Cuban Communist Party.
Pictures showed a tank truck being pulled out of the rubble.
Because of the coronavirus pandemic, the well-known five-star hotel a few steps from the Capitol has been closed for about two years.
It should be reopened next Tuesday.
The bottom three floors of the five-story neoclassical building were completely devastated, as can be seen in pictures.
Neighboring buildings and several vehicles were also damaged, apparently including a church and the important Martí Theatre.
According to the government, a nearby school was also damaged and evacuated.
Residents of affected houses were brought to safety.
The structural safety of the hotel and surrounding buildings is being examined.
Díaz-Canel praised on Twitter that many young Havana residents immediately donated blood for the injured.
The blast came at a time when Cuba is trying to restart its tourism industry after the global pandemic and local travel restrictions have depressed the market.
The island saw just 356,470 international visitors in 2021, a 67 percent drop from 2020 and a far cry from the four million visitors the island normally receives each year.