Rescuers work at the site of a collapsed building in Suzhou, east China's Jiangsu Province, July 12, 2021. One person died, and another 10 people are missing after a building collapsed Monday in east China's Jiangsu Province, local authorities said. The incident happened at around 3:33 p.m. Monday at a hotel in Wujiang District in the city of Suzhou, the district government said. (Photo: Xinhua)

Local government announced on Wednesday morning that the rescue efforts at the collapsed hotel in East China's Jiangsu Province are over. Of the 23 people that were trapped, 17 died and six are in stable conditions. The collapse was due to the private modification of the building, based on a preliminary determination.

A total of 17 people died in the collapse of the auxiliary building of Siji Kaiyuan Hotel at 3:33 pm Monday, announced the local government at 10 am Wednesday. The rescue ended at 9 am Wednesday. Of the six trapped people, one was without injuries, the other five are receiving treatment and they are stable.

The Safety Committee of the State Council decided on Wednesday to set up an inspection team to supervise an investigation into the accident.

The hotel was undergoing renovation when it collapsed on Monday. After a preliminary technical analysis, the cause of the accident was identified to be unauthorized renovation and transformation of the building, said local government. "The current owner of the house arranged workers to enter the site for unauthorized renovation and transformation, and it is suspected that the internal load-bearing walls were demolished, resulting in the collapse of that part of the house."

Criminal charges have been raised against the people responsible for the accident, including the legal representative of the hotel, the actual operator, the person in charge of the project, the engineering designer, and the person in charge of on-site construction.

The building is nearly 30 years old and has been undergoing frequent renovations in recent years. Its ownership has been transferred several times, according to The Paper. Local residents revealed that cracks had appeared in the hotel walls three years ago.

A former manager of the hotel said to Beijing Youth Daily that when he took over the hotel in 2018, he found that the main and auxiliary buildings were built by splicing them together, and there were cracks in the walls connecting the main and auxiliary buildings.

In the collapsed auxiliary building was a booming mahjong parlor business, said local residents. "The building used to have only three floors, but over the years they have been adding extra floors," a local resident surnamed Liu told Red Star News on Monday. 

Global Times