Nearly half of the fatalities from last week's earthquake in Yingjiang, Yunnan Province, were caused by collapsed buildings made with hollow bricks, an inferior material, according to a report.
The quake, which killed 25 and left 314 people injured, prompted authorities to ban the use of hollow bricks in future construction projects.
Beijing-based Caijing magazine reported Monday that three students and eight others died directly because of the low-quality bricks.
Qu Yonghuan and Li Jingrong, high school students, were killed while taking a bath in a school built with the hollow bricks. The report also said that Liu Yuhua, 50, a retiree, also died for the same reason.
She died from bricks that fell from the roof. But the walls made from ordinary bricks were left intact.
Yin Anqiang, the director of the local housing and urban-rural development bureau, told the magazine that "hollow bricks are no longer to be produced and used as house construction materials."
Tian Shiyu of China Engineering Consultants, an industry association, told the Global Times Tuesday that hollow brick constructions are easy to collapse.
The majority of local homes torn apart during the earthquake were built before 2008 with hollow bricks, Zuo Qiangguo, a county spokesman, told the Global Times Tuesday.
"It's cheaper to use hollow bricks than ordinary ones in construction," Zuo said.
A hollow brick sells for 1 yuan ($0.15) while but 0.5 yuan ($0.08) for an ordinary one. However, eight ordinary bricks are needed to fill the space of a hollow brick, local resident Yue Yanbao told the Guangzhou-based Nanfang Daily.
The newspaper said unlicensed construction workers built many homes because of their low salary.
The local government announced a rebuilding project to improve pre-2008 built structures.
However, just 60 percent of the buildings deemed to be unable during earthquakes were rebuilt as of last year because villagers were reluctant to spend 10,000 yuan ($1,521) to fix them.
"Quality inspection should be tightened and villagers should learn more about earthquake prevention," Tian told the Global Times.