Coronavirus quarantine hotel collapses, killing four people
Four people have died in the collapse of a hotel in the Chinese city of Quanzhou, in eastern China, where about 70 people were trapped by the crumbling building.
The structure was being used to quarantine individuals under observation for the coronavirus, the Ministry of Emergency Management said on Sunday.
The hotel began to collapse on Saturday evening (local time), with authorities retrieving 42 individuals from the site by 10.30am on Sunday, according to the ministry.
Of that total, four were confirmed dead, four have severe injuries, and one remains in critical condition.
Footage circulating on microblogging platform Weibo showed rescue workers combing through the rubble of the 80-room Xinjia hotel in coastal Quanzhou city in the dark as they reassured a woman trapped under heavy debris and carried wounded victims into ambulances.
The hotel's facade appeared to have crumbled into the ground, exposing the building's steel frame, and a crowd gathered as the evening wore on.
China's Ministry of Emergency Management said some 200 local and 800 Fujian Province firefighters had been deployed to the scene along with 11 search and rescue teams and seven rescue dogs, according to Xinhua.
Quanzhou authorities said ambulances, excavators and cranes had also been rushed to the site, as well as representatives from Beijing.
Quanzhou has recorded 47 cases of the COVID-19 infection and the hotel, which opened just two years ago, was recently repurposed to house people who had been in recent contact with confirmed patients, the People's Daily state newspaper reported.
China is no stranger to building collapses and deadly construction accidents, which are typically blamed on the country's rapid growth leading to corner-cutting by builders and the widespread flouting of safety rules.
At least 20 people died in 2016 when a series of crudely-constructed multi-storey buildings packed with migrant workers collapsed in the eastern city of Wenzhou.
Another 10 were killed last year in Shanghai after the collapse of a commercial building during renovations.
With Reuters
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