Spain –
“A hotel room should be the safest place on holiday, somewhere you can shut the door and switch off from everything outside. For two German tourists in Mallorca, however, their room became a potentially deadly trap when both were found unconscious after being poisoned by carbon monoxide. The women, aged 34 and 42, were discovered shortly before midnight on Saturday at the Ahoi Urban Beach hotel in Playa de Palma.
Both were taken to Son Llàtzer Hospital in serious condition and one was later treated in a hyperbaric chamber. They are now stable and out of danger. The incident has raised particular concern because there had reportedly been problems with the room before the women were found. Guests who had previously stayed there complained of throat irritation and were moved to another room, while the two German tourists had also raised concerns about problems in their room earlier that day.
…Firefighters detected carbon monoxide inside the building and evacuated around 25 people while they ventilated the hotel and checked the premises. A 39-year-old hotel employee was also affected by the gas…Investigators have not yet established exactly how the carbon monoxide entered the hotel room. Initial enquiries have focused on a possible fault involving the hotel’s hot-water boiler or a combustion problem, with investigators also examining whether fumes could have travelled through ventilation ducts.
Other early reports have raised the possibility of a problem with a kitchen extraction system, so the precise source has not been confirmed…”