BEIJING, March 11, 2020 (BSS/AFP) – The death toll from the collapse of a
coronavirus quarantine hotel in east China rose to 26 on Wednesday, with
three more people feared still trapped in the rubble, according to state
media.
Dozens of people were pulled alive from the wreckage of the six-storey
Xinjian hotel in the coastal city of Quanzhou but 26 others were either found
dead in the ruins or have since died of their injuries, the official Xinhua
news agency reported.
Six of the deaths were reported on Wednesday.
The hotel collapsed on Saturday night, with footage published by local
media appearing to show the building’s facade crumbling to the ground in
seconds, exposing the structure’s steel frame.
The hotel was “illegally constructed and had repeatedly violated the
regulations”, the Ministry of Emergency Management said Tuesday.
The building had been repurposed to house people who had recently been in
regions hard hit by COVID-19, according to local newspaper Quanzhou Evening
News.
All of the people quarantined in the hotel had tested negative for the
virus, Quanzhou Evening News reported.