Eight killed, 9 missing after hotel collapses in eastern China

Gulf Today Report

A hotel collapsed in the Chinese city of Suzhou killing at least eight people, while nine are missing, the local government said on Tuesday.

Rescue workers were searching on Tuesday for the missing people among the ruins. Authorities had earlier suggested that 14 people had already been rescued but offered the new tally following "further analysis and screening of new information".

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Rescue workers kept digging through the remains of the collapsed hotel.

Rescuers prepare equipment as they search for survivors at a collapsed hotel in Suzhou, China, on Monday. AP

Earlier, authorities said, “at least 23 people were trapped when then hotel collapsed. Six people were rescued and eight people were confirmed dead, leaving nine people unaccounted for.”

No cause for the disaster has yet been given.

The hotel opened in 2018 and had 54 guest rooms, according to its listing on the travel site Ctrip.

Images from the scene showed orange-clad rescue workers swarming over large piles of rubble.

Rescue workers rummage through the rubble. Xinhua/AP

The collapse of part of the Siji Kaiyuan Hotel in the coastal city happened on Monday afternoon. The Ministry of Emergency Management sent a team to help with the rescue work, media reported.

The cause of the collapse was under investigation, the Xinhua news agency reported. It published photographs of rescue workers combing through rubble in the search for survivors.

The workers in the city of Suzhou searched through the night, using rescue dogs, cranes, ladders and metal cutters, after the building collapsed on Monday afternoon, the city government said in social media posts.

Photos showed orange-suited rescuers with helmets working through the ruins of the building, which had been reduced to girders and rubble. The cause of the collapse is under investigation.