German tourists are among the victims of a restaurant collapse in Mallorca

Photo: Jaime Reyna

Emergency teams work at the scene of a restaurant roof collapse in the city of Palma de Mallorca, the capital of the Balearic Islands tourist region in Spain, on May 23, 2024.

Jaime Reyna

Excess weight is the main hypothesis that explains the collapse of a restaurant in the Spanish tourist city of Palma de Mallorca, which left four dead, including two German tourists, and 16 injured, some of them in serious condition.

This hypothesis was mentioned by the commander of the fire department in the city of Palma de Mallorca, Eder Garcia, when speaking about the collapse that occurred on Thursday night at the Medusa Beach Club, a location facing the Mediterranean Sea.

The first floor of the restaurant collapsed onto the ground floor and the ground floor collapsed into the basement, “which is where we found the largest number of victims,” Garcia said.

“We have confirmation of 20 casualties, four of them fatal and the rest in different states,” Garcia said early in the morning.

A source in the National Police told Agence France-Presse, “The victims are two German women, aged 20 and 30, a Spanish worker aged 23, and a Senegalese man aged 44.”

The Deputy Mayor of Palma de Mallorca, Javi Bonnet, explained that the two German women “were on vacation,” and according to the local press, the Senegalese man lives on the island.

According to the local newspaper Ultima Hora, the Senegalese man and one of his compatriots saved a person from drowning on the beach in 2017, a story that received widespread coverage in the local press.