The collapse of a hotel in eastern China has left at least four people dead, the Ministry of Emergency Situations said on Sunday (March 8th). The building was requisitioned for quarantine against the coronavirus and collapsed on Saturday.
Of 71 people trapped at the time of the disaster, 42 were removed from the rubble, including four lifeless and five people are in serious condition, said the ministry on its website. Reuters, for its part, reported six deaths.
The establishment, located in Quanzhou in the province of Fujian, collapsed Saturday around 19:30 (11:30 GMT) for an unknown reason. Public television CCTV initially reported 48 people extracted from the rubble on Sunday morning. The chain had not however given any details on their state of health.
700 rescuers deployed
Images broadcast by CCTV showed teams of rescuers and medical personnel dressed in full-face masks and coveralls active at the scene in the dark. Backhoes were also in action on a pile of debris. In the images, only the metal frame of the building seemed to have withstood the collapse.
According to local authorities in Quanzhou, more than 700 rescuers were deployed on the spot.
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The Xinjia Hotel, which has 80 rooms, was recently converted into a quarantine facility for people who have come into contact with patients infected with the new coronavirus.
The official new China news agency said without further details that the hotel owner would be interrogated.
The city has recorded 47 cases of contamination since the start of the Covid-19 epidemic last December. The coronavirus caused 27 new deaths in China on Sunday, bringing the total death toll in the country to 3,097 and at least 80,695 people have been infected since the start of the epidemic, the National Health Commission said.
With AFP
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