The death toll from a building collapse in China last week has risen to 53 after more bodies were discovered, state broadcaster CCTV said on Friday. The eight-story building, which housed a hotel, apartments and a cinema, collapsed on April 29 in the city of Changsha (center) for an as yet undetermined reason. Authorities have so far reported 26 deaths. CCTV clarified that the rescue operations were now “completed”.
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Hundreds of rescuers have been mobilized in recent days to try to find dozens of people from whom we had no news. Ten people were able to be extracted alive from the rubble. Chinese media have broadcast images in recent days of rescuers, equipped with heavy machinery, trying to make their way through the debris of the collapsed building, which left a gaping hole.
State media referred to “a miracleafter a woman was pulled alive earlier in the day from the ruins of the building that collapsed on Friday. This is the ninth person found alive since the collapse, for an as yet undetermined reason, of the eight-storey building which housed a hotel, apartments and a cinema.
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Hope of “new miracles»
According to the People’s Daily, an organ of the ruling Communist Party, the rescued woman was conscious and able to talk to rescuers through a small hole before her extraction and “his vital signs are stable“. Public broadcaster CCTV showed footage of a person wrapped in a blanket and carried on a stretcher. “Hoping for new miraclesCCTV wrote on its official social media page.
Thorough investigation, continued research
President Xi Jinping ordered a full investigation into the cause of the collapse and called for a search for the victims “whatever the price“, according to state media. Eleven people, including the building owner and a team of security inspectors, have been arrested in connection with the building collapse, according to Changsha authorities. They are suspected of having falsified a security audit, according to the official Xinhua news agency. This type of disaster occurs regularly in China. Most of the investigations that are then carried out highlight non-compliance with construction standards.
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In January, an explosion probably triggered by a gas leak hit a building in the municipality of Chongqing, located some 1,700 kilometers west of Shanghai, killing at least 16 people. The explosion of a gas pipe in June 2021 killed 25 people in a residential area of Shiyan, in central Hubei province. In the same month, 18 people were killed in a fire at a martial arts school in central Henan province. Most of the victims were boarding school students, between the ages of 7 and 16, according to state media.
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