MADRID (Reuters) – The Medusa Beach Club in Spain’s Palma de Mallorca, which collapsed last week killing four people, did not have a permit to serve customers on its rooftop, the city’s mayor said on Tuesday.
Two German tourists, a Spanish waitress of Senegalese origin and a Senegalese man were killed when the two-storey beachside restaurant building caved in on May 23.
“The rooftop did not have a licence for activity nor authorisation to occupy the terrace,” mayor Jaime Martinez Llabres told reporters on Tuesday while disclosing the content of several city council reports related to the accident.
Martinez Llabres said the preliminary investigation showed the accident was caused by the excessive weight of a large number of people on the rooftop, which had been revamped without the required authorisation from the city.
There were about 21 people on the rooftop at the time of the collapse, according to the head of the city’s fire department, Eder Garcia.
Firefighters said the club usually spread its tables across the terrace, but that night it had set a larger table for a group of 12 Dutch tourists, which they believe may have provoked the collapse.
“There shouldn’t have been anyone up there,” Garcia said.
The accident occurred as Spain’s Mediterranean Balearic islands prepare for a summer tourism season expected to bring millions of visitors.
The German victims were two women aged 20 and 30, the waitress was 23 and the Senegalese man was 44.
Martinez Llabres said the reports had been sent to police and the prosecutor’s office. The city council will also take part in any future lawsuits over the collapse.
(Reporting by Emma Pinedo; Editing by David Latona, William Maclean)
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