简体中文
Three known to be injured after sports centre collapse, with witnesses describing noise like an "explosion"
The giant rooftop of a building on City University of Hong Kong’s campus collapsed on Friday afternoon, injuring three people.
The collapse, covering an area of 900 sq m, happened around 2.30 pm. A security guard from the university filed a report of an explosion in the Chan Tai Ho Multi-purpose Hall
The hall is inside Hu Fa Kuang Sports Centre on the Tat Chee Avenue campus, in Kowloon Tong.
A police spokeswoman said three people, two men and a woman, were injured.
They were all taken to Caritas Medical Centre.
The spokeswoman said it was not clear whether anyone was buried under debris, and that police were investigating the cause.
The fire department said officers from the Urban Search and Rescue Team were scouring the rubble with life detectors. Four ambulances and 13 fire engines were sent.
Venkat Saraenji, a 30-year-old student at City U, was eating at the canteen nearby when the collapse happened.
“It was quite loud,” he said. “We heard the sound, like 20 seconds of sound. We didn’t know what happened...then we left the building.”
And Dr Luk Bing-lam, of CityU’s Department of Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering, said there was a lot of dust after the roof fell in, adding: “It took several minutes before the dust dispersed.”
An eyewitness told Cable TV some of those nearby initially thought there was an explosion.
“Someone ran out of it and screamed, ‘Explosion, explosion’,” he said. “The exam season was over, otherwise it’d have been full of students as it is always an examination hall.”
According to City Broadcasting Channel, a student-run website, there was a complaint about falling objects during an exam last week, but the test went ahead.
Education sector lawmaker Ip Kin-yuen said he was shocked by the incident.
“City University should set up an independent investigative committee as early as possible to find out the cause of the collapse and look into whether it involved negligence and sloppy work,” he said.
He said the university should also inspect all of its other buildings to ensure the safety of students and staff.
(SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST)
