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Building collapse in China kills 53

Rescuers have pulled 10 survivors from the rubble of the eight-storey "self-built" house in Hunan province that collapsed on April 29, according to CCTV.

Agencies
Beijing, China
Fri, May 6, 2022

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Building collapse in China kills 53 This photo taken early on May 5, 2022 shows rescuers carrying a survivor out of a collapsed six-storey building in Changsha, central China’s Hunan province. Fifty-three people died in a building collapse in central China, authorities said on May 6, announcing the end of the rescue mission in a disaster which has been blamed on illegal construction. (AFP/CNS)

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span class="tr-strong">Fifty-three people died when a housing block collapsed in the Chinese city of Changsha last week, state broadcaster CCTV reported on Friday after days of rescue efforts.

Rescuers have pulled 10 survivors from the rubble of the eight-storey "self-built" house in Hunan province that collapsed on April 29, according to CCTV.

The cause of the collapse is under investigation by local authorities and several people have been arrested, according to the report.

The commercial building in Changsha city caved in prompting over six days of painstaking attempts to pull survivors free from the mass of rubble and twisted metal.

"The search and rescue work at the Changsha building collapse site has been completed," state broadcaster CCTV said.

"The trapped and incommunicado people from the accident scene have all been found... ten people were rescued and 53 people died."

City official Wu Guiying apologised for the accident during a Friday briefing, saying she was "extremely distressed" and offered a "sincere apology to society".

The tenth person pulled alive from the rubble just after midnight on Thursday had been buried in debris for nearly six days, state media reported earlier. 

The confirmed number of dead from the collapse had previously been twenty-six as of Thursday evening. 

The block had contained apartments, a hotel and a cinema. The flattened structure, which has left a gaping hole in a dense Changsha streetscape, created a mess of debris and crumbled concrete beams.

Building collapses are not uncommon in China due to weak safety and construction standards, as well as corruption among officials tasked with enforcement.

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