The hotel building collapsed in east China's Fujian Province when it was under house decoration and the owner of the building has been put under police control, local authorities said Sunday.
The Xinjia Hotel collapsed around 7:15 p.m. in Licheng District of the city of Quanzhou, trapping about 70 people. As of 8:20 a.m., 49 people had been rescued.
Two supermarkets on the first floor were under remodeling when the accident happened, and a pillar was reported to undergo deformation just a few minutes prior to the collapse, according to Zhang Yi, director of the housing and urban-rural development bureau in the district.
Zhang added that it needed further investigation whether the collapse was due to house decoration or structural problem.
Construction of the building, with a floor area of 7,000 square meters, began in 2013. It was converted into a hotel in 2018 with 66 rooms, according to Zhang.
The rescue work is under way.
