Hotel used for quarantine in China collapses; 70 trapped

SPH Brightcove Video
Several people have died and more remain trapped after a hotel, where people were being observed for coronavirus, collapsed in China on Saturday evening.
Left: Rescuers helping a man out of the rubble of the hotel yesterday. Above: It was reported that the Quanzhou Xinjia Hotel had opened in June 2018 with 80 rooms. People who returned from Hubei province had been placed under quarantine there. Rescue
Rescuers searching for survivors yesterday in the rubble of the Quanzhou Xinjia Hotel in Quanzhou city, in China's Fujian province. No reason was given for the collapse. PHOTOS: AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Left: Rescuers helping a man out of the rubble of the hotel yesterday. Above: It was reported that the Quanzhou Xinjia Hotel had opened in June 2018 with 80 rooms. People who returned from Hubei province had been placed under quarantine there. Rescue
Rescuers helping a man out of the rubble of the hotel yesterday. PHOTOS: AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, WEIBO
Left: Rescuers helping a man out of the rubble of the hotel yesterday. Above: It was reported that the Quanzhou Xinjia Hotel had opened in June 2018 with 80 rooms. People who returned from Hubei province had been placed under quarantine there. Rescue
It was reported that the Quanzhou Xinjia Hotel had opened in June 2018 with 80 rooms. People who returned from Hubei province had been placed under quarantine there. PHOTOS: AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, WEIBO

SHANGHAI • About 70 people were trapped yesterday after a five-storey hotel being used for coronavirus quarantine collapsed in the port city of Quanzhou in south-east China, state media said.

A live video stream posted by the government-backed Beijing News site showed rescue workers in orange overalls clambering over mounds of rubble and carrying people towards ambulances gathered around the site.

Beijing News said that the Quanzhou Xinjia Hotel was five storeys high. It collapsed at about 7.30pm and 34 people were rescued in the following two hours, the Quanzhou municipality said on its website.

No reason was given for the collapse.

A woman identified only by her surname, Chen, told the news site that relatives, including her sister, had been under quarantine at the hotel as prescribed by local regulations after returning from Hubei province, the centre of the coronavirus outbreak.

She said that they had arrived on Feb 25 and had been scheduled to leave soon after completing their 14 days of quarantine.

"I can't contact them; they're not answering their phones," she said. "I'm under quarantine too (at another hotel) and I'm very worried. I don't know what to do. They were healthy; they took their temperatures every day and the tests showed that everything was normal."

The official People's Daily said that the hotel had opened in June 2018 with 80 rooms.

Quanzhou is a port city in Fujian province with a population of over eight million. The Fujian government said, as of Friday, the province had 296 cases of coronavirus and 10,819 people had been placed under observation after being classified as suspected close contacts.

The official Xinhua news agency said that the committee responsible for working safety under the State Council, China's Cabinet, has sent an emergency working team to the site.

REUTERS

Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.

A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Sunday Times on March 08, 2020, with the headline Hotel used for quarantine in China collapses; 70 trapped. Subscribe