Dozens of people are missing or trapped in the rubble of a building that collapsed on Friday in the city of changshain the center of Chinawhere rescue operations continue, state television reported on Saturday.
Some 18 people are trapped and another 39 remain unaccounted for after the collapse of the eight-story building on Friday afternoon, state television network CCTV reported.
It is not clear if authorities believe that the people who could not be contacted could be under the rubble.
“The situation of the missing is being evaluated,” Mayor Zheng Jianxin told reporters.
The building housed a cinema, a hotel and apartments. No casualties have been reported so far and city authorities said five people were rescued of the collapsed structure during the night of April 29.
Images published by the Chinese media show the collapsed roof, furniture and air conditioners among the rubble and rescuers trying to communicate with the trapped people.
Photo: AFP
To cut through the rubble, rescuers use circular saws.
Some of the wounded were carried on stretchers down a narrow alley as sniffer dogs searched for signs of life.
“The tenants made structural changes to varying degrees,” CCTV television said, adding that the reason for the collapse was under investigation.
exhaustive investigation
Chinese President Xi Jinping has ordered a thorough investigation into the cause of the collapse and called for the victims to be searched “at any cost”, state media reported.
Wang Yong, a senior official of the communist party He was sent to the scene to lead a team to “guide rescue operations,” according to an official statement on Saturday, which may be an indication of the severity of the disaster.
State Councilor Yong, appointed by the central government, was sent to lead a team to “guide rescue and emergency response operations,” according to an official statement on Saturday.
These disasters are frequent in Chinadue to poor compliance with safety standards.
In January, an explosion caused by a suspected gas leak caused a building to collapse in the city of Chongqing, some 1,700 km west of Shanghaileaving more than a dozen dead.
A gas line explosion in a residential area in June 2021 killed 25 people in the central province of hubei.
And the same month, 18 people were killed by a fire at a martial arts school. All the victims were boarding school students, according to state media.
kg