The six-storey structure, which collapsed around noon, was home to a restaurant, a guesthouse and a cinema, broadcaster CCTV said.
Rescuers were racing to find survivors after a building housing businesses collapsed on Friday in the central Chinese city of Changsha, state media reported.
The six-storey structure, which collapsed around noon, was home to a restaurant, a guesthouse and a cinema, broadcaster CCTV said.
Videos published by local media showed a large cloud of dust rising into the air over the adjacent street, as well as crumpled railings and a mound of debris where the building had stood.
No casualties have been reported so far, though state-owned CGTN said people were trapped in the rubble and “a rescue operation is under way”.
CCTV said “fire and emergency response department workers have rushed to the scene” and “the specific casualty situation is under investigation”.
Building collapses are not uncommon in China, due to weak safety standards and corruption among officials tasked with enforcement.
In January, an explosion triggered by a suspected gas leak brought down a building in the city of Chongqing, killing more than a dozen people.
And 25 people were killed in a gas blast that ripped through a residential compound in June 2021, also striking a busy two-storey building packed with shoppers.
The same month, 18 people were killed and more injured when a fire broke out at a martial arts school, with state media reporting that all the victims were boarding school pupils.
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North Korea halts rail crossings with China, where Covid is on the rise: Report
Cross-border freight train services between North Korea and China have been suspended after a series of Covid-19 infections in the Chinese border city of Dandong, the Yonhap news agency said on Friday. Authorities in Dandong decided on the suspension at North Korea’s request, the agency said, citing unidentified sources. The suspension came less than four months after North Korea eased its years-long border lockdowns against the coronavirus that began early in 2020.
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Elon Musk told banks he will rein in Twitter pay, make money from tweets: Report
Elon Musk told banks that agreed to help fund his $44 billion acquisition of Twitter Inc that he could crack down on executive and board pay at the social media company in a push to slash costs, and would develop new ways to monetize tweets, three people familiar with the matter said. He agreed to pay for the remainder of the consideration with his own cash. The sources requested anonymity because the matter is confidential.
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![British Prime Minister Boris Johnson. ]( "British Prime Minister Boris Johnson. ")
Local elections could spell end of the party for UK PM Boris Johnson
John Jones is the sort of voter that British Prime Minister Boris Johnson cannot afford to lose – but already has. Jones, who backed Johnson’s Conservatives at the national election three years ago when the party swept to a landslide victory, regrets his decision after the prime minister broke his own coronavirus lockdown laws to attend alcohol-fuelled gatherings in his Downing Street office.
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US reports first human H5 bird flu case in Colorado resident
The United States reported its first known case of H5 bird flu in a human with the virus appearing in a person in Colorado. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the person tested positive for avian influenza A(H5) virus and was involved in the culling of poultry presumed to have had H5N1 bird flu. This is the second human case associated with this specific group of H5 viruses across the globe.
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![Doses of Moderna Covid-19 vaccine shots at a vaccination facility set up at Taipei Main Station in Taipei, Taiwan.]( "Doses of Moderna Covid-19 vaccine shots at a vaccination facility set up at Taipei Main Station in Taipei, Taiwan.")
Global weekly Covid cases dropped by 21%: WHO in latest report- 10 points
Since the end of March, the number of new Covid cases and deaths have been declining, the WHO has said in its latest epidemiological update. Here are the latest global updates on Covid: 1. “During the week of (April) 18 through April 24, over 4.5 million cases and over 15 000 deaths were reported, decreases of 21 per cent and 20 per cent respectively, as compared to the previous week,” the WHO’s latest update read.
