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Fifty-three people were killed in a building collapse in central China on Friday, authorities said, declaring the end of the rescue mission in a tragedy blamed on illegal construction.
Last Friday, a business in Changsha city caved in, prompting six days of painstaking efforts to extract survivors from the mass of rubble and twisted metal. “The search and rescue task at the Changsha building collapse site has been completed,” city officials were quoted as saying by state broadcaster CCTV.
“All of the trapped and unresponsive people from the crash incident have been found… ten people have been saved, and 53 people have died.”
According to reports, the tenth person pulled alive from the rubble shortly after midnight on Thursday had been entombed in debris for nearly six days.
During the briefing, local official Wu Guiying apologized for the accident, mentioning her “extreme distress” and “unparalleled self-blame,” as well as offering a “sincere apology to society.”
The death toll from the collapse has risen from 26 as of Thursday evening.
The building housed apartments, a hotel, and a cinema. The collapsed structure, which has left a gaping hole in a dense Changsha streetscape, has left a shambles of debris and crumbling concrete beams.
Another woman who survived the debris for around 88 hours told state media that she was going to study on her bed at the time of the collapse and managed to stay alive by wanting to hold on to a small amount of water and using her quilt to keep warm.
According to Xinhua, rescuers were able to find live victims using sniffer dogs, life detectors, and drones, as well as shouting and knocking survivors.
According to Changsha authorities, eleven people have been detained in connection with the collapse, including the building’s owner and a team of safety inspectors. Two people are suspected of engaging in “illegal alteration” of the building.
Officials claim that surveyors lied about the building’s safety audit.
According to state media, the structure is a “self-built residential structure,” which means it was built by individuals or businesses with no state funding.
On Sunday, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development announced a nationwide safety inspection drive for “self-built housing.”
President Xi Jinping ordered a serious examination into the cause of the collapse last week, indicating the gravity of the disaster.
Building collapses are common in China due to lax safety and construction standards, as well as bribery among enforcement officials.
