Tenerife hotel horror blaze as guest, 23, plunges to his death from balcony

A horror blaze tore through a Tenerifeholiday hotel as a 23-year-old guest plunged to his death from a third-floor balcony.

The fire happened at the four-star Melia Costa Atlantis Hotelin the northern port city of Puerto de la Cruz. About 490 guests, including several Brits, were evacuated and pictured standing outside the hotel in the dark while firefightersrushed into the building. The nationality of the tourist who died following a balcony plunge from the room where the blazestarted has not yet been revealed.

Officers are still investigating the cause of the inferno, although local reports are pointing to a mattress in the room catching fire.

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Local emergency crews confirmed the hotel death and fire early this morning. In a statement, authorities said: "The first emergency calls were received at just after 9pm last night, saying a fire had broken out at a hotel in Venezuela Avenue in Puerto de la Cruz.

"Firefighters, ambulances and police were sent to the scene and police began the evacuation of the hotel once they arrived. While they were there we were informed a man who turned out to be a 23-year-old client had plunged from a hotel balcony for reasons that are still being investigated.

"He was confirmed dead at the scene as a result of the injuries he suffered. The blaze was brought under control and put out. It affected a room which was ventilated afterwards."

The hotel has yet to make any official comment on its social media. The evacuated tourists were unharmed and returned to their rooms shortly after being ordered to leave.

It comes after a British teenager died following a plunge from the third floor of a hotel in Spain earlier this year. The 19-year-old tourist died instantly in the fall at the four-star Ibiza Rocks Hotel on July 14 - the same Ibizan party resort of San Antonio where Scots holidaymaker Evan Thomson, 26, tragically lost his life two weeks prior.