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Mimi Lau

More than two dozen people have been rescued from the rubble of a multi-storey building reportedly converted into a coronavirus quarantine centre, after it collapsed in the southeastern Chinese province of Fujian on Saturday.
The Xinjia Express Hotel in Quanzhou collapsed just after 7pm, according to Mnw.cn, an online news site operated by the official Fujian Daily.


Authorities in Licheng district said about 70 people were in the building when it collapsed.
The Quanzhou municipal government said 34 people had been rescued by about 10pm.
LATEST: Search for survivors at collapsed quarantine hotel in China
The Beijing News quoted several local government officials as confirming the hotel had been turned into a quarantine centre and was one of two in the district. The exact number of people in the building at the time was unknown.
People’s Daily reported that the hotel had been converted by the Licheng district government into a medical surveillance facility for people with close contact with coronavirus patients.
A man living across the road from the hotel said he thought the collapse was an explosion.
“I was just having dinner and I suddenly heard a loud bang and thought it was an explosion. It was not until I ran to my balcony that I saw that the entire hotel building had collapsed,” Mnw.cn quoted the man as saying.

Videos posted online showed emergency workers combing through the building’s wreckage.
More than 147 firefighters and 26 emergency crews were at the site, according to the Ministry of Emergency Management.


Huang Ming, the ministry’s Communist Party secretary, is overseeing the rescue mission from Beijing.
Senior State Council officials are also on their way to Quanzhou.
The hotel had 80 guest rooms and opened in June 2018.

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More than two dozen people pulled from the rubble, state media report
About 70 people believed to have been in the building at the time



More than two dozen people pulled from the rubble, state media report.


Safety in China

Coronavirus pandemic: All stories

‘Coronavirus quarantine hotel’ collapses in southeast China

More than two dozen people pulled from the rubble, state media report About 70 people believed to have been in the building at the time

More than two dozen people pulled from the rubble, state media report

About 70 people believed to have been in the building at the time