Part of a hotel on Germany’s Mosel River collapses. 1 person dead; 4 rescued but others trapped

BERLIN (AP) — Part of a hotel in a winemaking town on the Mosel River in western Germany collapsed, leaving one person dead and several others trapped in the wreckage, authorities said Wednesday. Four people were rescued hours after the collapse.

Fourteen people were in the hotel in Kroev when one story of the building collapsed at about 11 p.m. Tuesday. Police said five were able to get out of the building unhurt, but another nine were trapped.

By early Wednesday morning, emergency services had established that one person was dead, but hadn’t yet been able to recover the body. At that point, eight people were believed still to be in the building, some of them seriously injured.

More than two hours later, authorities said they had rescued two women, a man and a 2-year-old child, German news agency dpa reported. Their conditions weren’t immediately clear.

Regional public broadcaster SWR said witnesses reported hearing a bang and seeing a large cloud of dust at the time of the collapse.

Authorities evacuated 31 people from the area immediately around the damaged building. There was no immediate word on what caused the collapse.

Police said it was “an extremely demanding deployment, because emergency personnel can only enter the building with the greatest caution.” They said that some 250 emergency workers, including drone specialists, were at the scene, as well as rescue dogs.

Kroev is on a picturesque section of the Mosel near the larger resort town of Traben-Trarbach. It has about 2,200 inhabitants.