Historic Casablanca Hotel Collapse Kills One

One person was killed and two were injured in Casablanca on Monday when part of the city's historic but derelict Hotel Lincoln collapsed, local officials and Moroccan media said.

A 34-year-old man died in the dawn incident at the hotel, which is technically a listed building despite been derelict for two decades.

The local Economist news site said another two people were injured in the collapse.

Parts of the Lincoln, of which only part of the original facade remains standing, have been occupied by homeless people.

However, authorities said all those living in the building at the time of the collapse were found "safe and sound".

Built in 1917 by French architect Hubert Bride, the hotel came to symbolize the Art Deco era that shaped several buildings in the heart of Morocco's economic capital.

Development and property speculation have since reshaped the city and preservationists are increasingly concern about what the fate of the crumbling French colonial facades, neo-Moorish details and Art Deco hotels.

The president of a local conservation group, Rachid al-Andaloussi, told AFP there were plans to save the hotel but that the issue "needs to be made a priority".

This month, a Casablanca court jailed seven people for two to five years for their role in the deaths of 23 residents when three apartment blocks in the city collapsed in July 2014.