A six-storey building being refurbished as a four-star hotel collapsed yesterday in central Madrid, killing three construction workers and the project’s architect, Reuters reports.
The site workers were identified as three men aged between 30 and 50 from Ecuador, Mali and Guinea-Conakry.
The project’s architect was a 30-year-old woman.
Three other construction workers were injured.
Search-and-rescue teams found the bodies of the dead under rubble early today nearly 15 hours after the collapse, which saw the building’s interior structure fall, leaving the façade intact.
The former office building was constructed in 1965, according to Madrid’s online registry of buildings under construction, Reuters found.
It underwent two technical inspections in 2012 and 2022 and was classified as “unfavourable” owing to “the general condition of the facade, exterior, partition walls, roof, roof terraces and plumbing and sewage system”, Reuters reported.
The hotel’s developer was a company called Rehbilita.
The building belongs to Saudi-based fund RSR, which bought it for €24.5m ($28.5m) in 2022, according to Reuters.
Municipal authorities approved the renovation in December 2024. The project was expected to last two years.
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