2 Days After Building Collapse, a Dramatic Rescue

Woman pulled from rubble in China, but dozens are feared dead
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted May 1, 2022 10:02 AM CDT
2 Days After Building Collapse, a Dramatic Rescue
Rescue workers transfer a person pulled alive from the scene in Changsha, China.   (Chen Zhenhai/Xinhua via AP)

A woman was rescued Sunday from the rubble of a building in central China more than 50 hours after it collapsed, state media said. Separately, police arrested nine people, including the building owner, on suspicion of causing a major liability accident, the official Xinhua News Agency said, per the AP. State broadcaster CCTV showed video of rescuers bringing the woman out on a stretcher about 4:30pm. Some could be heard shouting words of encouragement during the operation. She was taken to a hospital and is in stable condition, CCTV said.

The woman was the sixth person rescued from the building, which collapsed Friday afternoon in the inland city of Changsha, the capital of Hunan province. About 20 others remained trapped, and another 39 had not been accounted for as of late Saturday. Besides the owner, police said they had arrested three people in charge of design and construction and five others for what they said was a false safety assessment for a guest house on the building's fourth to sixth floors.

The building appeared to have pancaked down to about the second floor, leaving rubble strewn on the sidewalk. It had stood in a row of buildings about six stories tall. Xinhua said the building had eight floors, including a restaurant on the second floor, a cafe on the third floor, and residences on the top two floors. Tenants had made structural modifications to the building, but the cause of the collapse remained under investigation, Xinhua said.

(More China stories.)

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