Eleven people have been killed after a roof collapsed at a school gymnasium in China’s far northeast while it was being used by a girls’ volleyball team.
The coach of the middle school’s girls’ volleyball team was heard calling out the students’ names as rescue teams clawed through the rubble in the city of Qiqihar, the BBC reported, citing China National Radio.
The incident happened on Sunday and the last victim was pulled from the rubble on Monday morning. The official Xinhua News Agency said construction work at the school was likely to have caused the collapse, after workers stored materials on the gym’s roof that absorbed rain water.
Nineteen people had been in the gymnasium of the No. 34 Middle School, Xinhua said, but gave no details on how many were students. Social media and the Baidu news website carried footage of angry parents complaining about what they said was a lack of communication from authorities.
“They tell me my daughter is gone but we never got to see the child,” one man said in a video that has gone viral on social media.
“All the children had their faces covered with mud and blood when they were sent to the hospital. I pleaded, please let me identify the child. What if, that wasn’t my child?” he said.
