Cleaners felt building start to move as ground gave way

A block of 18 apartments in the popular holiday resort of Alcudia had to be knocked down yesterday, leaving a number of tourists “homeless” and others having to be relocated after cleaning staff reported that the building started to move yesterday morning. While the exact cause of why the building suddenly started to sink and collapse is yet to be confirmed, it appears that the land on which the block was built started to give way and the building started to sink. One of the exterior walls started to give way as the block became structurally deformed. Fortunately some of the holidaymakers staying in the apartment block had just departed for the airport while others were on the beach. There was however concern about one woman who was not located until yesterday afternoon for fears that she had been in the building when it started to give way. Police combed the length and breadth of Alcudia beach until she was found. A specialist demolition company was brought in immediately and in co-operation with the Insular Council of Majorca firemen, the Guardia Civil and the local police, brought the entire building down for safety reasons. According to the fire service, it was shortly after 1pm that cleaning staff, getting the apartments ready for new arrivals, felt the three-storey building, which is part of the Nuevas Palmeras complex, moving and alerted the authorities. Fortunately nobody was injured as the building started to collapse although there were a number of surprised tourists as they returned to their apartments to find teams of demolition experts and police standing amongst the rubble.