Eight people have been confirmed dead and another eight are still missing following the collapse of nine-storey apartment block in south west China yesterday.
14 people, including a four-month-old baby, were rescued soon after the accident, which took place in Guizhou province on Wednesday morning.
More than 100 rescuers are using sniffer dogs to search for survivors after mobile phone signals indicated that residents were still trapped under the rubble, reported People's Daily Online.
The rescue team have said that there is still a chance of finding survivors over the next 48 hours, although the rain is making the operation more difficult.
The first body was discovered at 2.30am on Thursday morning and identified as a 41-year-old man who lived on the seventh floor.
98 of the 114 residents living in the block were confirmed to be safe on Wednesday evening.
The accident happened at 11:30 a.m. Wednesday, when the nine-story building in central Guiyang with 114 residents living in it fell down. A total of 98 were confirmed safe as of Wednesday evening. Another 16 couldn't be reached, but mobile phone signals of 15 of them were detected at the scene. Chen lived on the seventh floor.
Rescuers are combing the debris with sniffer dogs and life detectors to find the missing. Residents of nearby buildings were evacuated after the accident. Guiyang has been soaked by rain in the past several days. A rain-triggered landslide is believed to have caused the tragedy, said the Guiyang city government.
Local authorities believe that a landslide on a hill next to the building may have caused the collapse, following a week of heavy rainfall in the region.
Residents in nearby apartments were evacuated soon after the accident.
A resident from the neighbouring apartment block, who has not been named, said: 'The whole building just went down.'
'I was in the bathroom and I heard a loud bang. I thought it was an earthquake.'
A local real estate agent, named only as Mr Zhang, said: 'The collapse is likely to have been caused by a landslide.
'It's been raining heavily recently and a lot of places were flooded.'
It is not yet clear whether there have been any casualties.
Thursday 21 May 2015
http://en.people.cn/n/2015/0521/c90882-8895692.html
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