10 killed, 22 missing in Quanzhou hotel collapse

When a 12-year-old boy was pulled alive from the rubble of a collapsed hotel in Quanzhou, Fujian province, on Sunday morning, the first words he said were, "My mum was by my side. She is still alive!"

With continued efforts, his mother was also rescued from the ruins at 4:38 pm, making her one of the 49 people carried out by rescuers as of 8 pm on Sunday, China News Service reported.

However, the sudden collapse of the Xinjia Hotel, in the city's Licheng district at 7:15 pm on Saturday, has claimed 10 lives, and more than 1,000 rescuers continued their efforts on Sunday night to search for 22 people who remained missing, according to the Ministry of Emergency Management.

The hotel had been made a facility for medical observation after the outbreak of the novel coronavirus. When the collapse occurred, 80 people were in the hotel, 58 of them under quarantine. The others were hotel staff and employees of businesses located on the ground floor of the building, Hong Ziqiang, Quanzhou's executive vice-mayor, said at a news conference on Sunday.

Of the 80, nine escaped and 49 were pulled out from the wreckage, but 10 of those were dead.