Nine injured after fire breaks out in Barcelona hotel

Nine people, of which three are in serious condition, were injured after a fire broke out around 1 pm on Saturday in the Hotel Coronado in Barcelona's Poble-sec neighborhood.

Firefighters evacuated the building and managed to put out the fire, which originated on the third floor of the establishment on Nou de la Rambla, around 2:30 pm. Local and Catalan police officers also rushed to the scene, as did EMTs.

The cause of the fire remains unknown but a police investigation is already underway.

"The fire was extinguished relatively quickly," Gerard Pradas, the head of the Barcelona firefighters, told the Catalan News Agency.

Two people on the third floor had to jump from balconies to escape the flames. "When we got here, we saw the second person jump. The first person had already jumped," Pradas said. Neighbors and hotel workers had placed mattresses on the ground to cushion their fall.

One person was sent to the Catalan capital's Hospital Clínic, where he is in critical condition, while another two people have been sent to Vall d'Hebron Hospital with serious injuries and two others with less serious injuries are at Hospital del Mar.

This is not the first time a fire breaks out in Barcelona in recent months: a family of four died at Plaça Tetuan in late November, while a man passed away and 300 hundred animals died in two fires in January.