State broadcaster CCTV showed a man wrapped in a thick blanket being placed on a stretcher. He was taken to a hospital, his condition was initially unclear. Meanwhile, the search for more victims continued. A person who had been buried was rescued from the rubble of the building on Sunday afternoon – more than 50 hours after the collapse. After the emergency services had heard signs of life behind a one meter thick wall, they made their way to the buried person with circular saws and kept in contact with her, screaming.
According to the authorities, at least 15 people were buried on Monday. The number could be significantly higher, however, because no contact could be made with 39 other people. Hopes of finding more survivors in the rubble continued to dwindle. Changsha’s mayor Zheng Jianxin spoke of a 72-hour “golden window” for the rescue operation after the building collapsed.
The eight-storey building complex, which housed a cinema, a hotel and apartments, collapsed on Friday. More than 700 emergency services were sent to the scene of the accident. The causes of the collapse were still unclear on Monday. Nine people suspected of being responsible were arrested on Sunday, including the owner of the building. The official Xinhua news agency reported that they were charged with falsifying a security check. The day before the arrests, China’s head of state Xi Jinping had called for a thorough investigation into the cause of the accident.
Buildings keep collapsing in China. This is partly due to low safety standards, but also to corruption among government officials responsible for overseeing building codes. In January, at least 16 people were killed in an explosion in a building in the central Chinese city of Chongqing, which is believed to have been caused by a blown gas pipe.
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