Building collapse in east China

A relatively new residential building in east China's Zhejiang Province collapsed on Sunday.

A woman has been confirmed dead and another woman, buried for more than 22 hours, has been rescued.

The casualties could have been much higher, had the community not persuaded residents to move out, just hours after cracks were found.

PKG

The six-story apartment block collapsed in Jiangdong district of Ningbo City at lunchtime on Sunday.

A woman was pulled out of the debris around 5 pm, but died later in a local hospital, after rescue efforts failed.

Another woman who was reported missing after the accident was pulled out alive Monday morning, after being trapped for more than 22 hours.

The accident took place only hours after residents found cracks in the building and reported the situation to the community.

The community began to evacuate them shortly afterwards.

SOUNDBITE: (CHINESE) HUANG XIAYUE, Resident

"The community said we should move out as soon as possible. They told us to take only the precious property and nothing more, because people's lives are most important."

And only just in time:

By twelve o'clock, the majority of residents moved out...

Just fifteen minutes later, the building collapsed.

SOUNDBITE(CHINESE) LIU YAFEI, Resident

"I was so scared. My hands kept trembling. At first I thought the building could not collapse. I had never seen anything so terrible."

Initial investigation found that the building's foundations had been exposed to rain water, eroding the wall over time.

The building was built in 1989 - and was home, to 18 families.

Now, it's the latest example of collapsing construction in China, after a slew of road, bridge, building and dam collapses, across the country this year.

And construction malpractice, has often been blamed - with supervision diluted by chains of subcontracting... or premature project deadlines.

An investigation into the accident is underway.

If shoddy building is to blame, it could take more than a new apartment, to rebuild residents' trust.

TAG

Last month, a new draft law appeared on the State Council's Legislative Affairs Office website, banning construction projects from having more than one main contractor...

And preventing subcontractors from subcontracting themselves... to improve supervision and quality control, in construction across China.