Four dead and 29 missing in China Quarantine Hotel collapse

By Tony Winterburn • Published: 08 Mar 2020 • 7:41

A hotel being used as a coronavirus quarantine centre in China suddenly collapsed, leaving four dead and 70 people trapped with at least 29 people unaccounted for.

The five-storey building in Fujian province was being used to house and observe people who had come into contact with Covid-19 patients when it collapsed at around 7:30 pm local time.

Nearly 150 firefighters are thought to be engaged in the rescue operation. Footage shared to social media shows emergency service workers clambering among the rubble and using powerful torches to search for survivors.

It is understood that a woman named only by her surname, Chen, said that relatives including her sister had been under quarantine at the hotel as prescribed by local regulations after returning from Hubei province, where the coronavirus emerged.

Xinjia Hotel was used as a quarantine site for isolating people that had close contacts with infected patients. People are still trapped inside the rubble, shown here is one man who has just been found.

She said they had been scheduled to leave soon after completing their 14 days of isolation.

‘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.’

It is still not clear what caused the collapse.

As the search for survivors continues, please check back later for updates on this story