A three-story residential building partially collapsed yesterday morning in east China's Ningbo City, killing two and injuring five residents.
The accident took place at about 11:30am. About half of the building collapsed.
People living in the neighborhood said there was a noodle production plant in the building, and they suspected the collapse was caused by the explosion of a boiler in the plant, according to China Central Television.
Rescuers were still checking the debris late yesterday in case anyone else was trapped.
It was the second recent case of structures collapsing in Ningbo. A six-story building collapsed at noon on December 16 in Jiangdong District after residents found cracks in the structure. A total of 256 households living in eight buildings in the area were evacuated and resettled temporarily in seven hotels by the local government.
A 24-year-old woman surnamed Dong was rescued from the debris of the collapsed building after having been buried nearly 23 hours.
Most of the families living there had been evacuated during the morning but Dong and a 21-year-old woman who shared an apartment on the second floor were still in the building when it collapsed.
Dong's roommate, who has not been named, was pulled from the debris at 4:45pm on December 16, but later died.
Ningbo's housing authority said the building's base had no damp-proof coating, common in the late 1980s, China News Service reported. Decades of soaking by rain had undermined an underground load-bearing wall, leading to the collapse.
China's weekly story (2013.01.27-01.31)
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