Falling rocks in a popular tourist area of Gran Canaria continue to pose risks to buildings, with two apartments evacuated in the latest incident.
As reported here, the rockface in Lomo de Taurito in Mogán has been the source of major worries in recent years.
The Mogán Princess Hotel overlooking the Taurito Beach suffered extensive damage in 2022, when a boulder weighing three tons dislodged from the hillside behind. Two rooms and several hallways were damaged and the hotel was forced to close twenty rooms until November 2024 when Mogán Council finished work to shore up the rocky hillside.
In a new incident early on Wednesday morning, two apartments suffered damage after further dislodgements of rocks impacted on the rear of a complex short distance from the hotel, striking balconies and hallways. A number of rocks landed in the rear gardens of the complex also.
Nobody was hurt but the apartments were evacuated by the emergency services as a precaution while the extent of the damage to structural features such as pillars and the building’s overall stability were assessed. A drone was used to inspect the rockface and determine the likelihood of further rockfalls.
The incident will inevitably lead to pressure on Mogán council, which owns the hillside that ends in the sheer rockface, to take steps to shore it up more effectively and eliminate the risk of rockfalls totally.
It is not known at this stage whether the whole apartment complex will have to shut as a result of the incident and, if so, whether owners will follow the lead of the Mogán Princess, which was awarded compensation from the local council for the damage caused and loss of revenue when it had to close the twenty rooms for repairs.
