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12 missing after hotel fire
19/08/2007 09:10 - (SA)
London - As many as 12 people are missing after a deadly fire which killed one man and gutted a hotel in the seaside resort of Newquay, south west England, in the early hours of Saturday morning, police said.
Five people remain in hospital, two of whom are in a critical condition, following the blaze at the four-storey Penhallow Hotel in Newquay, Cornwall, just after midnight on Friday.
"We are looking for any number between six and 12 missing people," police superintendent Barry Frost said, upgrading an earlier estimate of six missing hotel guests.
"We will start to look for evidence as soon as it is safe to do so."
Police have revealed that the man who died had jumped from a hotel window as the fire took hold.
The fire destroyed the interior of the 54-room seafront hotel, leaving only parts of the facade standing.
The dead man has yet to be identified, according to Frost, who added that two elderly hotel guests were in a critical condition in hospital.
Police must wait until demolition experts have made the site secure before starting their hunt for the missing people either late Saturday or on Sunday.
"The longer we go on the more concerned we become for the welfare of those people," added Stephen Otter, chief constable of Devon and Cornwall Police.
"We have to investigate what happened along with the fire service and that will take time."
"The people in hospital are suffering from injuries from falling down, burns and especially the elderly people are suffering from the trauma of the whole thing."
- SAPA
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