A woman was rescued from the rubble of a building that collapsed in central China on Friday, the sixth survivor found since the disaster of unknown origin, according to Chinese media.
After 50 hours of work, rescue teams brought the woman out covered in dust, then carried away on a stretcher according to images from public television CCTV.
Dozens of people were trapped or missing on Saturday, the day after the eight-storey building collapsed in the city of Changsha: At least 18 people were still trapped at the end of the day, after five survivors were found, while 39 people could not be reached, according to the authorities.
The building housed a hotel, apartments and a cinema.
Thorough investigation
Changsha police said nine people were arrested on Sunday in connection with the accident, including the owner of the building and security inspectors suspected of falsifying the results of an inspection of the building.
According to city mayor Zheng Jianxin, more than 700 rescuers were dispatched to the scene and “no effort will be sparedto search for those trapped under the rubble, a tangle of metal and concrete that firefighters were working their way through, according to state media footage.
President Xi Jinping on Saturday called for a search for “at all costsand ordered a full investigation into the cause of the collapse.
Building collapses are not uncommon in China, due to poor safety and construction standards but also corruption among officials responsible for monitoring those standards.
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