A building undergoing renovations in Madrid, Spain, collapsed on October 7, killing four people. The six-story office building in the city center was strongly renewed and modified to prepare to reopen as a hotel.
Three construction workers and a woman who claims that the project were supervised were killed when several floors of the building were collapsed. Authorities have described the three workers as men between the ages of 30 and 50 years of Ecuador, Mali and Guinea-Conky, and the woman was 30 years old. Three other construction workers were also injured in the collapse.
The last remains were recovered 15 hours after the collapse, as emergency crews worked with sniffer dogs to dig through the rubble of the building. The facade of the structure was left standing after the collapse. The original office building dates from 1965 according to public records reviewed by Reuters, and the building’s technical inspections in 2012 and in 2022 described it as “unfavorable”, citing several problems with the facade, the ceiling and the interior walls.
The project was carried out by the local contractor Rehbilita, who described the project on its website as a complete rehabilitation and structural consolidation of the building and its garage to turn it into a four-star hotel. The property is owned by the Saudi RSR -based real estate investment fund, which has developed other hotel and residential properties in Spain and Portugal.
