Construction-quality controversies continue to haunt earthquake-devastated Sichuan more than two years after the disaster, with a fresh row erupting between local authorities and quake victims over the unusual collapse of a residential building weeks ahead of its completion.
Residents in Hanwang town, Mianzhu city, one of the worst-hit areas in the May 2008 quake, claimed the unfinished building - designated as new homes for quake victims - collapsed suddenly after heavy rains on Thursday afternoon.
Photos of debris of the toppled four-storey building were posted on many popular internet forums on the mainland in the past two days, with local witnesses blaming shoddy construction and the local government's incompetence and corruption.
Thousands of local residents, who have been waiting anxiously for two years to move into new homes, flocked to the scene of the toppled building. The area near the site was sealed off by police yesterday, according to witnesses.
The accusations, which served as bitter reminders of the unresolved controversies over 'tofu' school buildings - referring to shoddily built buildings - in the Sichuan earthquake, spurred an immediate outcry on the internet.
A statement issued by the Mianzhu city government dismissed the allegations as 'merely illusions by a bunch of misinformed and ignorant people', according to the China News Service.
