Two more survivors pulled from building collapse in central China
BEIJING: Rescuers pulled a pair of survivors from a collapsed building in central China on Sunday, state media reported, two days into a search-and-rescue operation for dozens feared missing.
The building in Changsha city, Hunan province - which housed a hotel, apartments and a cinema - caved in Friday afternoon, leaving a gaping hole in the dense streetscape.
City officials on Saturday said five survivors had been pulled out of the structure. There are now 16 people believed to remain trapped, authorities say, while no contact has been made with nearly 40 others.
More than 50 hours into the rescue effort, a seventh person was rescued Sunday evening, state broadcaster CCTV reported, after rescuers “detected signs of life” earlier that afternoon.
“When she was discovered, she was in relatively good condition. Her vital signs were quite stable and she could hold a normal conversation with rescuers outside,” a CCTV reporter on the scene said, adding the woman had been separated from rescuers by a wall one metre thick.
CCTV showed footage of an ambulance driving the survivor to hospital, while rescuers worked with a digger in the background.
Another survivor was pulled from the rubble earlier on Sunday, as CCTV broadcast images of firefighters hauling a person covered in dust onto a gurney.
Changsha police said nine people - including the building’s owner and a team of safety inspectors - were detained on Sunday in connection with the accident. They alleged that surveyors had falsified a safety audit of the building.
No cause for the disaster has yet been given by authorities.
Changsha’s mayor earlier vowed to “spare no effort” in their search for the people still trapped.
“We will seize the golden 72 hours for rescue and try our best to search for the trapped people,” mayor Zheng Jianxin said in a news briefing on Saturday.
He added that more than 700 first responders had been dispatched to the scene.
State media showed firefighters - backed by a digger - cutting through a morass of metal and sheets of concrete, while rescuers shouted into the tower of debris to communicate with any survivors.