China hotel collapse: Four killed, 70 people trapped in building used for coronavirus quarantine

A hotel being used as a coronavirus quarantine centre in China has collapsed, leaving four people killed , 70 people trapped.

The five-storey building in Fujian province was being used to house and observe people who had come into contact with Covid-19 patients when it collapsed at around 7:30pm local time.
At least four people were killed following the collapse of a hotel used as a coronavirus quarantine facility in eastern China, the Ministry of Emergency Management said Sunday.

Rescuers have also retrieved 38 survivors from the rubble, with five in critical or serious condition, out of 71 initially trapped, the ministry said.

The coastal city of Quanzhou has recorded 47 cases of the COVID-19 infection and the hotel had been repurposed to house people who had been in recent contact with confirmed patients, the People's Daily state newspaper reported.

Footage circulating on Twitter-like Weibo showed rescue workers searching the ruins of the Xinjia hotel in the dark as they reassured a woman trapped under heavy debris and carried wounded victims to ambulances.

Other footage published by local media, purportedly from security cameras across the street, showed the entire hotel collapsing in seconds.

The building's facade appeared to have crumbled into the ground, exposing the structure's steel frame, and a crowd gathered as the evening wore on.

State broadcaster CCTV had earlier reported 48 people had been rescued out of 67 initially trapped when the hotel  — which opened two years ago  — collapsed.

The building's first floor has been undergoing renovation since before the Lunar New Year, and construction workers called the hotel's owner minutes before the collapse to report a deformed pillar, the official Xinhua news agency said.

The building's owner has been summoned by police, according to Xinhua.

China is no stranger to building collapses and deadly construction accidents that 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.

At least 34 people have so far been rescued from the wreckage of the Xinjia Express Hotel in Quanzhou, according to local officials.

Nearly 150 firefighters are thought to be engaged in the rescue operation. Footage shared to social media shows emergency service workers clambering among the rubble and using powerful torches to search for survivors.

“I was just having dinner and I suddenly heard a loud bang and thought it was an explosion,” South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported a man who lived in the building opposite as telling state-affiliated media. “It was not until I ran to my balcony that I saw that the entire hotel building had collapsed.”

The hotel is one of two buildings being used as a quarantine centre in the city’s Licheng district, after opening as a hotel in June 2018, according to SCMP.

The reason for the collapse is not yet known. An unidentified hotel employee cited by the Beijing Youth Daily said the owner carried out “foundation-related construction” before the disaster. It gave no details.