9 held over building collapse in Chinese city of Changsha as rescuers ‘race against time’ to find survivors
- Police in Changsha say those detained include the owner of the property and 3 who were in charge of reconstruction work
- A letter, apparently written by the ‘heartbroken and helpless’ parents of students at a local university, appeals for help in finding the missing
In a brief statement, police in Changsha, the capital city of Hunan province, said the owner of the building, as well as three people who were in charge of the building’s reconstruction work, had been detained over Friday’s collapse.
China building collapse: owner detained as hunt for survivors continues
Another five people, all employees of a local engineering test firm, were also taken into custody on the suspicion of providing false documents, police said.
No casualty figures have been released, but Communist Party newspaper People’s Daily reported on Sunday night that a seventh survivor had been rescued.
Another 16 remain trapped under the rubble, according to figures released by Zheng Jianxin, the mayor of Changsha, on Sunday.
Meanwhile, a further 39 people were uncontactable after the incident.
Wen Xianghui, the political commissar of the Changsha Fire Brigade, told CCTV on Sunday evening that rescue personnel were working in very difficult conditions because the adjacent buildings were also “severely damaged and could collapse at any time”.
“The space is so narrow that only a few rescuers can be allowed in [at any time],” Wen said. “We are in a race against time.”
The building in Changcheng district, near the campus of Changsha Medical University, housed shops, a restaurant, a cafe, a family-run hotel and flats.
A letter said to be from the parents of 36 students from the university has been circulating on Chinese social media.
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Multiple residents trapped after building collapses in central China’s Changsha
The letter, dated Saturday, was apparently from a group of “heartbroken and helpless” parents pleading with the Hunan and Changsha authorities to save their children who they said had been missing since the building collapsed.
The Post has contacted family members of the students listed in the letter.
One day after the incident, Chinese President Xi Jinping ordered local officials to rescue those trapped “at all costs” and punish those responsible, state broadcaster CCTV reported.
There have been a number of instances where buildings in China have collapsed due to poor construction standards in recent years.
In March 2020, a Covid-19 quarantine hotel in Quanzhou, in the southeastern province of Fujian, collapsed killing 29 people and injuring another 50.
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Illegal reconstruction was blamed and the hotel owner was sentenced to 20 years in prison, while seven officials, including a police chief, were jailed for abuse of power, negligence and bribery.
Five months later, 29 people died and 28 injured after a restaurant in Xiangfen county in Shanxi province collapsed.
Investigators said the restaurant owner had illegally altered the structure of the building and 41 local officials were punished for dereliction of duty.
In July last year a hotel in Suzhou, Jiangsu province, collapsed, killing 17 and injuring five. Local authorities said illegal work had caused the tragedy and seven people, including the hotel owner and four employees from a construction company, were detained.
