By Birgit Reichert, dpa I Sunday, August 11, 2024
KROV – Residents, relatives and rescue workers gathered for a memorial service in the western German village of Kröv on Sunday to commemorate those killed in a hotel collapse.
Two people, a 64-year-old woman and the 59-year-old hotel owner, died when the multi-storey hotel in the village about 100 kilometres west of Frankfurt collapsed with 14 people inside on Tuesday evening.
Participants at the service, held in the parish garden of the local church, observed moments of silence and prayed for a 26-year-old Dutch man who was severely injured and placed in an induced coma.
“We trust that he will fully recover,” the man’s father, Auke Hoefnagel, said in an address after the service.
Police said earlier on Sunday that the man’s condition “isn’t good.”
The man, his 23-year-old wife and their 2-year-old son were among seven people trapped in the rubble for several hours before rescue workers were able to free them.
Five people were able to escape the site immediately.
Funds raised for Dutch family
A crowdfunding campaign set up following the collapse raised some €54,000 ($59,000) for the Dutch family by Sunday.
Donations poured in quickly, particularly from the predominantly Christian municipality of Urk in the north-western Netherlands where the family lives, according to Dutch newspaper Algemeen Dagblad.
The money is intended to pay for a helicopter flight to bring the seriously injured man back for further treatment in his home country, the campaign’s organizers were quoted as saying by news agency ANP.
As the family reportedly didn’t have insurance for travel emergencies, the funds are also intended to replace their lost belongings and cover other costs.
Village coming together
The father of the Dutch woman thanked the many first responders in attendance at the service. “You’re heroes,” he said.
The gathering was intended to help people process the tragedy, police chaplain Hubertus Kesselheim said.
“Of course there is a lot of sadness in the village,” said Mayor Desire Beth. The family owning the hotel is popular, she added.
“We are a village of 2,300 inhabitants, so everyone knows everyone. In a place like this, people celebrate together, but also stand together in times of crisis,” the mayor said.
Clean-up efforts continued on Sunday, with debris and rubble still being removed from the site, according to a police spokesman.
He was unable to say how long it would take to demolish the building.
The cause of the accident is still unclear. The public prosecutor’s office has opened an investigation and commissioned an expert to find out how the accident could have happened.
Kröv sits on the Moselle River in one of Germany’s top wine-growing regions and is popular with holidaymakers who come to explore the lush hills.
