Eastern China building collapse leaves 7 dead

Nine people were buried in Wenzhou, Zhejiang province in Eastern China after a residence complex collapsed on the morning of Thursday Feb. 2, and seven of them have been reported dead. The building’s poor construction was probably the reason for the collapse, as there had been no reports of extreme weather in the area over the last days. Next to the collapsed apartments still stands a residential building seeming relatively intact, which forces the rescuers to work carefully. More than 400 people were involved in rescue efforts, including soldiers, police, fire rescue personnel, and medical staff.

The first rescue came on the evening of Thursday, just before 11 p.m.  It was the 63-year-old Hu Qinghua, who was able to use her cell phone to contact her daughter and asked about her neighbors. Their conversation was captured by TV crews and circulated widely online later. “Fine, fine, they’re all fine,” Hu’s daughter told her. “Don’t think about them. They are all in hospital.” The second survivor, a middle-aged local woman referred to in media reports by her surname Liu, was pulled from the debris at around 7 a.m. Friday, almost 24 hours after the collapse.

In the same area, 22 people were killed last October, when a cluster of decrepit homes collapsed. A 2014 government investigation had classified over 1,400 buildings in Lucheng as dangerous, and almost 1,000 of them were deemed unsafe for human habitation.

Image source: VOA