Four people have died and another three are missing after a
five-story building collapsed in southwest China's Sichuan Province, local authorities said on
Monday.
The residential building in Tantong Town in Linshui County
collapsed at about 6:20 PM Sunday, according to a statement faxed
to Xinhua.
Initial investigations show that eight people were in the
riverside building when the accident happened, the statement
said.
A 12-year-old schoolboy called Kou Tao survived, suffering minor
injuries to the leg, but his elder sister was among the four
dead.
Rescuers are still searching for the missing people and an
investigation into the cause of the accident has begun.
The statement did not identify the other three dead people or
the missing people.
Sources said that the building had been rented out to more than
30 students and business people.
Continuous heavy rain hit the town over the past days, causing
cracks to appear in the facade of the building, and on Saturday the
owner asked the tenants to move out for fear of collapse. But a few
of them did not heed the warning because they had not found any
other place to rent.
(Xinhua News Agency July 3, 2007)