Eight people were killed and nine others remain missing after an annex to a hotel collapsed in the city of Suzhou, east China's Jiangsu Province, local authorities said Tuesday. The state news agency Xinhua has reported the accident took place at about 3:33 p.m. Monday, during which 23 people were trapped, according to the rescue headquarters. As of 7 a.m. Tuesday, 14 people have been traced, of whom one is unscathed, five are in stable condition while nine remain missing. The collapse of a section of the Siji Kaiyuan Hotel in coastal Jiangsu province happened on Monday afternoon, the Suzhou Municipal government said in a statement. According to state-run media, the Ministry of Emergency Management sent a team to help with the rescue work. Preliminary investigations found that the collapse was triggered by an unauthorized renovation, according to the government of Wujiang District, where the hotel is located. The cause of the collapse was under investigation, state-run Xinhua news agency said. Chinese media published photographs of rescue workers combing through rubble in the search for survivors. The Siji Kaiyuan is a budget hotel that opened in 2018. The section that collapsed was three stories tall while an online booking site said the hotel had 54 rooms. — Agencies
