A school gymnasium roof collapsed in northeast China while a girls’ volleyball team was using it, killing at least eleven people in the incident, according to state media.
Eyewitnesses told the local media that many of the victims were children, though this has not yet been officially confirmed.
Parents in anguish have flocked to a nearby hospital in search of information.
In the Heilongjiang industrial province, only eight of the 19 people who were inside the gym survived.
Local media reports that police have taken the owners of a nearby construction company into custody.
On the gym’s roof, they are alleged to have dumped perlite, a type of volcanic glass, while engaged in construction work on a nearby building project.
At 15:00 local time (07:00 GMT), the roof collapsed as a result of the mineral absorbing rainwater after prolonged downpours.
As rescue workers in Qiqihar city dug through the debris, the coach of the middle school girls’ volleyball team could be heard yelling the names of the students.
The rescue effort, which stretched until Monday morning, drew criticism from parents who felt that there had been improper communication from school officials.
“They tell me my daughter is gone but we never got to see the child. All the children had their faces covered with mud and blood when they were sent to the hospital. I pleaded, please let me identify the child. What if, that wasn’t my child?” one man said in a video that has been widely-shared on social media.
“What have [the authorities] been doing four, five, or even six hours after the children were sent to hospital? … Doctors are not communicating with us about how the rescue is going. “We have elderly people at home, we need to [help them] be mentally prepared. There are doctors, police officers and other government officials here. But we have not heard anything from you,” he said.
Many people in the counrty shared the father’s concerns on social media and questioned how the police and officials at the scene handled worried parents.
One angry user asked, “Do people mean nothing to them?”.
Others questioned the initial purpose of the perlite’s presence on the gym’s roof.
Another user commented, “the cost for breaking the law is too low in this country, people don’t have any respect for the law, that’s the key reason “.
Source-BBC
