BEIJING (AP) — A woman was rescued Sunday from the rubble of a construction site in central China more than 50 hours after it collapsed, leaving dozens of people trapped or missing, state media said.
Meanwhile, police arrested people, and added the building’s owner, on suspicion of causing a serious accident, official Xinhua news firm said.
State television channel CCTV showed a video of rescuers bringing the woman back on a stretcher around 4:30 p. m. Some may be heard shouting words of encouragement for the operation. She was taken to the hospital and is in good condition, CCTV said.
She, the sixth user rescued from the building, collapsed on Friday afternoon in the city center of Changsha, the capital of Hunan province. Approximately 20 other people remained trapped and another 39 had not been discovered as of Saturday night.
In addition to the owner, police said they arrested 3 other people in connection with the design and structure and five others for what they called a false security assessment of a guest space on the fourth to sixth floors of the building.
In the photos, the construction gives the impression of having collapsed almost instantly, leaving debris scattered on the sidewalk. It is located in a row of buildings of about six floors.
Xinhua said the construction has 8 plots, adding a restaurant on the current grounds, a cafeteria on the third floor, and apartments on the two most convenient grounds. Other media outlets said it is a six-story construction. Tenants have made structural adjustments to the construction, however, the cause of the collapse remains under investigation, Xinhua said.
Police said Hunan Xiangda Engineering Testing Co. had published the fake security report on April 13. Among those arrested were the legal representative of the company and 4 technicians suspected of offering the evaluation.
Following an increase in the number of collapses of self-built buildings in recent years, Chinese President Xi Jinping said on Saturday that it is mandatory to check those structures for any hidden dangers and repair them to avoid primary accidents, Xinhua said.
Poor compliance with protection standards, coupled with the illegal addition of more floors and the lack of use of rebar, are to blame for such disasters.