Outcry in China after gym collapse kills three
Wednesday, 8 November 2023
JIAMUSI, Nov 07 (BBC): Chinese people have expressed alarm online after a second gymnasium collapsed in Heilongjiang province in months, killing three people.
The three victims are middle school students, state news agency Xinhua reports. The cave-in on Monday night came after days of unseasonably cold weather and snowfall.
Video online showed rescuers scrabbling through snow-covered concrete rubble on a basketball court to find survivors.
Another video shared widely on Chinese social media showed a woman in an icy street, running towards the building while yelling: "My son! My son is in there."
On Tuesday, authorities confirmed three were killed and one seriously injured inside the Yuecheng Gym Stadium in Jiamusi city. Authorities said they had detained a person in charge of the gym- and gave no further details. It's still unclear what caused the second-floor collapse.