70 people under rubble after Chinese ‘quarantine hotel’ collapses
A hotel has collapsed in the Chinese city of Quanzhou, in the southeastern province of Fujian. Seventy people would lie under the rubble. The hotel was used as a quarantine site for people who had recently come into contact with patients infected with the coronavirus.
The two-year-old hotel Xinjia, which has eighty rooms on five floors, was recently converted into a quarantine room for people who had been in contact with corona patients, reports the Volksdagblad, the official mouthpiece of the Chinese communist party. The hotel collapsed around 7.30 p.m. local time. After two hours, 34 people were relieved, the provincial government says in a press release.
The state agency Xinhua reports that rescue workers are still on site. About 150 firefighters are looking for more victims. Witnesses speak of an incredible bang, after which chunks of debris, glass, and dust flew in all directions.
Eight million people live in the port city of Quanzhou. Almost 11,000 people are quarantined throughout the Fujian province, and two hundred ninety-six inhabitants died of the coronavirus.
In China, there are relatively many collapses of buildings and accidents at construction sites. The years of the rapid growth of the economy and the ignoring of safety regulations in the construction of buildings contribute to this.
