Hotel being used as coronavirus quarantine facility collapses in Quanzhou, trapping at least 70
A hotel in China being used as a quarantine facility for coronavirus has collapsed, sparking a frantic bid to save dozens still trapped under the rubble.
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More than 40 people have been rescued following the collapse of a hotel used as a coronavirus quarantine facility in eastern China on Saturday, state media reported.
Officials said around 70 people were initially trapped when the building first crumbled.
Footage circulating on microblogging platform Weibo showed rescue workers combing through the rubble of the 80-room Xinjia hotel in coastal Quanzhou city in the dark as they reassured a woman trapped under heavy debris and carried wounded victims into ambulances.
The collapsed hotel in Quanzhou, SW China's Fujian trapping around 70 people under was a designated quarantine place for people who are suspected of having #coronavirus or have close contact with #COVID19 patients. So far 28 people have been rescued. pic.twitter.com/zP1u2FRFF3
— People's Daily, China (@PDChina) March 7, 2020
#Breaking A hotel building #collapses in Quanzhou, East China's Fujian province, trapping about 70 people under it.
— China Daily (@ChinaDaily) March 7, 2020
23 people have been rescued as of 9 pm, according to the local government.
Rescue work is still underway. pic.twitter.com/JJeU24Xtqh
A total of 43 people have so far been rescued from the wreckage, state news agency Xinhua said.
The hotel’s facade appeared to have crumbled into the ground, exposing the building’s steel frame, and a crowd gathered as the evening wore on.
Needless to say, this is bad. Rescue workers scrambling to dig people out of a collapsed Xinjia Hotel in Quanzhou, Fujian province. Chinese media report the hotel had (at least partially) been converted into quarantine housing for suspected coronavirus patients. pic.twitter.com/5aamKU85fu
— Alejandro Alvarez (@aletweetsnews) March 7, 2020
Officials have yet to confirm whether anyone died in the accident.
China’s Ministry of Emergency Management said some 200 local and 800 Fujian Province firefighters had been deployed to the scene along with 11 search and rescue teams and seven rescue dogs, according to Xinhua.
Quanzhou authorities said ambulances, excavators and cranes had also been rushed to the site.
Representatives from Beijing are also en route to Quanzhou to assist in relief efforts, Xinhua reported.
Quanzhou has recorded 47 cases of the COVID-19 infection and the hotel, which opened just two years ago, was recently repurposed to house people who had been in recent contact with confirmed patients, the People’s Daily state newspaper reported.
China is no stranger to building collapses and deadly construction accidents, which are typically blamed on the country’s rapid growth leading to corner-cutting by builders and the widespread flouting of safety rules.
At least 20 people died in 2016 when a series of crudely-constructed multi-storey buildings packed with migrant workers collapsed in the eastern city of Wenzhou.
Around 19:30, the building collapsed in Xinjia Hotel, Licheng District, and about 70 people were trapped. Quanzhou and Licheng District governments are organizing search and rescue efforts, and 23 people have been rescued by 21:00.
— Tomato Mch (@mchtomato) March 7, 2020
Following live video pic.twitter.com/aObRG9Azrv
Another 10 were killed last year in Shanghai after the collapse of a commercial building during renovations
The hotel’s facade appeared to have crumbled into the ground, exposing the building’s steel frame, and a crowd had gathered around the area as the evening wore on.
A woman named only by her surname, Chen, told the news site relatives including her sister had been under quarantine at the hotel as prescribed by local regulations after returning from Hubei province, the centre of the coronavirus outbreak.
She said they had arrived on February 25 and had been scheduled to leave soon after completing their 14 days of quarantine.
“I can’t contact them, they’re not answering their phones”, she said.
“I’m under quarantine too (at another hotel) and I’m very worried, I don’t know what to do. They were healthy, they took their temperatures every day, and the tests showed that everything was normal.”
♦ï¸L’hôtel Xinjia Express dans le disttict de Licheng à Quanzhou s’est effondré il y aurait actuellement environ 70 personnes piégées sous les décombres♦ï¸pic.twitter.com/RMH7vb1oA0
— Maurice Martin â™¦ï¸ (@MauriceMartin01) March 7, 2020
China, where the new virus first emerged in December, has confirmed more than 80,000 cases, by far the most in the world. On Saturday, China reported 99 new cases, the first time since January 20 there was a daily increase of less than 100.
The government reported 28 new fatalities, raising the mainland death toll to 3070.
#Update: The Ministry of Emergency Management has sent a team to the site of Xinjia hotel, which collapsed in E China's Quanzhou on Sat evening, to assist local rescue work. The hotel is a medical observation site for close contacts with #COVID19 patients. https://t.co/44iEe8I1SV pic.twitter.com/L2ADWCrXr9
— Global Times (@globaltimesnews) March 7, 2020
