The causes of the collapse are being investigated
Eight people have been killed and nine are missing after a hotel section collapsed in eastern China , authorities said this morning after a night of intensive search by rescue workers.
The incident took place yesterday, Monday, in the middle of the afternoon in the big tourist and historical city of Suzhou, which is located about 80 kilometers west of Shanghai.
City officials said in a statement on Weibo that there were also five injured .
“Rescue teams have been mobilized to find” the nine missing, according to the same source.
An investigation is underway into the cause of the collapse of part of the building, the Xinhua news agency reported.
The Siji Kaiyuan Hotel was operational in 2018 and had 54 rooms as well as a dining room, according to its description on the Ctrip tourist booking site. The collapsed section was three stories high.
The Suzhou has a population of approximately 12 million inhabitants. It is known for its gardens and canals, to which it owes its designation as “Venice of the East”.
Building collapses are not uncommon in China . Most of the subsequent investigations show that these were due to non-compliance with construction specifications.
