Owners held after buildings collapse
Print Edition
POLICE have detained four owners whose leased residential buildings collapsed on Monday, killing 22 people in Wenzhou, a port city in east China’s Zhejiang Province.
Six people, including a 3-year-old girl, survived the collapse in the city’s Lucheng industrial district.
Police are investigating the cause of the disaster but an initial investigation blamed poor construction.
The four buildings were built by villagers in the 1970s and 1980s. Five adjacent houses built at the same time remain standing, but they are being demolished to ensure safety.
The run-down residential houses were all leased to migrant workers.
Yan Yongfa, one of the six survivors, said he was asleep when there was a huge bang, and he was plunged into darkness.
The migrant worker from southwest China’s Guizhou Province said the old village houses were popular because the rent was low at just 420 yuan (US$62.5) a month.
Western Wenzhou is an industrial cluster that attracts many rural laborers looking for work.
Another migrant worker said he had worked in the area for 19 years. Many of the village houses originally had four stories, he said, but one or two floors had been added.
“The old buildings have been under the government urban planning for reconstruction,” he said.
After the buildings collapsed, several streets were cordoned off.
Zhang Geng, mayor of Wenzhou, vowed that the city government would make a thorough check on all run-down residential houses and start reconstruction as soon as possible.
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