18-meter-deep basement dug by lawmaker collapses homes in Beijing

Fences have been set up around the collapsed property of Li Baojun and adjacent houses, located in Beijing. Photo: Li Hao/GT

Photo: Li Hao/GT

A lawmaker was found to have illegally dug an 18-meter-deep basement beneath his home in Beijing, which allegedly caused the collapse of his home and the collapse of roads and four other houses.

The property owner, Li Baojun, is a businessman and deputy of the People's Congress in Xuzhou, Jiangsu Province. Li bought the property in April 2010, the Beijing Daily reported.

The house collapsed on Saturday and left a 10-meter-deep hole on the road.

Li reportedly started to dig a basement last year.

The Beijing Municipal Commission of Urban Planning said Wednesday that it issued a renovation permit to Li but it did not include digging a basement, adding that the hole on the road has been filled with cement.

"We have temporarily housed 15 people living in the four adjacent houses in hotels and offered them 150 yuan ($25) a day as subsidy," Chen Yang, the director of the Shichahai sub-district office, told the Global Times.

Chen said that Li's brother has arrived in Beijing to deal with the incident but Li himself failed to appear.

Beijing city construction authorities said Monday that they noticed that Li was illegally digging without any blueprint.

In 2014, Li's neighbors reported his activities and asked him to stop and to pay a fine.

A surrounding courtyard has been cleared for safety reasons and the owners have been asked to do renovation work to avoid further incidents.

"We hope the government can give a reasonable explanation for this incident, and we hope to go back to work as soon as possible," a worker from a printing company in the courtyard surnamed Fu said.

It's common for some residents in the area to dig a basement without permission, a 63-year-old resident surnamed Ru told the Global Times, and asked, "Do we have to wait till we are all buried for the problem to be solved? "