Rescue workers carry an injured person on a stretcher at a site where a building collapsed in Changsha, Hunan
(Picture: via REUTERS)Rescuers have found two more survivors in the rubble of a building that collapsed more than three days ago in central China.
A man and a woman were pulled out of the rubble on Monday afternoon and early Tuesday morning, the official Xinhua News Agency said.
The woman had been trapped underneath the debris for 88 hours and alerted workers using life detection equipment to her presence by knocking on objects.
Seven other people have been rescued from the building while around 20 others remain trapped, Xinhua reported. A further 39 people had not been accounted for as of late Saturday.
The six-storey building collapsed at 12.24pm on Friday in the Wangcheng district of Changsha, the Hunan provincial capital south of Beijing.
Photos showed the front of the building largely intact, while the rear section appeared to have collapsed into itself.
Nine people have been arrested, including the building’s owner, on suspicion of ignoring building regulations or committing other violations.
Another three people in charge of design and construction were also taken into custody while a further five people have been charged with writing a false safety report for the building, Xinhua reported.
Police said the Hunan Xiangda Engineering Testing Company issued the false safety report on April 13.
The building was mostly residential but also held a residence, a cafe and shops.
An official from the Changsha fire department told broadcaster CGTN that the adjacent buildings were also likely to fall as a result of damage sustained during the accident.
China’s president Xi Jinping on Saturday said that local authorities must regularly check building structures following a rise in the number of collapses of self-constructed buildings.
At least 16 people died after an explosion triggered by a gas leak brought down a building in the city of Chongqing.
Twenty-five people also lost their lives in June 2021 when a gas blast hit a residential compound in the city of Shiyan.
Poor adherence to safety standards, including the illegal addition of extra floors and failure to use reinforcing iron bars, is often blamed for the disasters.
