An 8-story mixed-use building collapsed in Changsha, Hunan Province, in southeastern China, and about 50 people were buried or lost contact.
According to Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post (SCMP) on the 1st local time, 23 people were buried in a mixed-use building in Changsha, Hunan Province, China on the 29th of last month.
There were 39 people who were presumed to have been around the accident site but could not be reached, and it was counted that more than 50 people were not confirmed alive or dead.
The local fire department rescued five people who were buried and transported them to a nearby hospital, but the remaining 18 people are still under the rubble of the building.
Among the 39 missing, it was reported that 36 students from Changsha Academy (Medical College) close to the accident site were included.
The collapsed building was found to have a total of eight floors. The 2nd floor was used as a restaurant, the 3rd floor was used as a movie screening cafe, the 4th to 6th floors were used as a guest house, and the 7th and 8th floors were used as a home, the China Youth Daily reported.
The building is a so-called ‘resident-owned building’ built by local residents by hiring a contractor. It was originally built as a 6-story building, but it was extended to 8 floors in 2018, and structural changes were also made by the occupants. There are many cases where residents’ own buildings do not go through the design of experts, so safety vulnerabilities have been pointed out.
Authorities are conducting rescue operations, while arresting nine people, including the building owner and a company official who issued a false safety inspection report, to investigate whether the construction and management are poor.
