Accident site of a collapsed hotel in Quanzhou, southeast China's Fujian Province, March 8, 2020. (Xinhua/Lin Shanchuan)

The collapse of the hotel building in Quanzhou, East China's Fujian Province, which was being used as a COVID-19 quarantine center, reportedly occurred while the building was undergoing modification. 

The building owner, surnamed Yang, has been summoned by the public security department.

At least 10 people were killed in the collapse and another 23 are being searched for. Xinjia Hotel collapsed at around 7:15 pm on Saturday, trapping 71 people in the rubble.

But it is not yet confirmed whether the collapse resulted from the modification operation or from original structural problems, according to Zhang Yi, an official from the Housing and Construction Bureau of Quanzhou.

Fifty-eight people were quarantined at the hotel when the accident happened. Their nucleic acid tests were negative. 

The collapsed building was being used as a medical observation site for holding people from regions hit hard by the COVID-19 outbreak, according to the city government on Sunday. 

A Quanzhou publicity official reached by the Global Times on Sunday said it was unclear why the hotel was chosen as a quarantine site. He refused to give his full name.

The accident prompted the Work Safety Committee of the State Council and the Ministry of Emergency Management to launch a nationwide inspection to rule out possible security risks in buildings used as quarantine facilities. 

To prevent the possibility of infection from the novel coronavirus, the on-site rescue site was disinfected. Video footage from the Ministry of Emergency Management showed that several firefighters working on shifts were put through strict disinfection measures. 

The Ministry of Emergency Management urged local officials to find the reason behind the collapse, and hold the relevant personnel responsible. Fujian Province was also asked to inspect various security loopholes in cities in order to ensure public safety.  

Construction on the building began in 2013. It was transformed into Xinjia Hotel and opened in June 2018 with 66 rooms.. 

There are six rooms on the first floor of the building, two of which were originally used as a supermarket. Before the Spring Festival this year, the building owner took back the supermarket that had been rented out on the first floor and remodeled it, , the Xinhua News Agency reported. 

At 7 pm on Saturday, the owner received a phone call from construction workers at the site saying that a pillar on the first floor of the building was deformed. Three or four minutes later, the entire building collapsed, according to Zhang. 

Less than two years after it opened for business, reports showed the hotel had been administratively punished twice for failing to register guests according to rules. The latest punishment was given on December 4, 2019, and the hotel was given a warning and fined 3,000 yuan ($433). On July 2019, the hotel was chastised for failing to send an annual report to the local administration bureau of industry and commerce, media reports said.

China's National Health Commission dispatched two teams of 18 medical experts to support local emergency response work. The wounded were sent to four hospitals in Quanzhou for treatment.