China: 18 trapped in collapsed building, 39 unaccounted for
At least 18 people were trapped under an eight-storey building that collapsed in central China, officials said on Saturday, as rescuers pulled apart the rubble brick by brick in an effort to reach survivors.
The building, which housed a hotel, apartments and a cinema, caved in on Friday afternoon in Changsha city, Hunan province, leaving a gaping hole in a densely built street front.
Another 39 people were uncontactable after the incident, the mayor of Changsha told reporters.
It was not clear if authorities believed the people who could not be contacted were also under the rubble. “The situation of the missing persons is being further assessed,” mayor Zheng Jianxin said.
City authorities are yet to release details of casualties but said five people were rescued from the structure overnight.
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.
Some of the injured were rushed on gurneys through a narrow alleyway late on Friday,
while sniffer dogs combed the area for further signs of life.
No cause for the disaster has yet been given by authorities, although speculation turned to possible overwork on the property, which officials said was eight storeys high, correcting earlier reports that it was six.
“Tenants had made structural changes to the premises to varying degrees,” state broadcaster CCTV reported, adding that the reason for the collapse was under investigation.
President Xi Jinping called for a search for victims “at all cost”, state media reported, adding he had ordered a thorough investigation into the cause of the collapse.