7 dead, 28 missing as hotel in China virus fight collapses

March 8, 2020, 9:19 AM
2 min read
BEIJING -- At least seven people were killed in the collapse of Chinese hotel that was being used to isolate people who had arrived from other parts of China hit hard by the coronavirus outbreak, authorities said Sunday.
The sudden collapse of the building in the southeastern city of Quanzhou on Saturday evening trapped 71 people, China's Ministry of Emergency Management said.
Authorities in Quanzhou said that 36 had been rescued and 28 were still missing. Most of the rescued were taken to hospitals for treatment, some with serious injuries
The cause of the collapse was under investigation, and the owner of the building was put under police control, the official Xinhua News Agency said.
Two supermarkets on the first floor of the seven-story building were undergoing remodeling, and a pillar reportedly deformed a few minutes before the collapse, Xinhua said, quoting a housing and development official.
Built in 2013, the building was later converted to a 66-room hotel that opened in June 2018, Quanzhou authorities said. The coastal city is in Fujian province, across the Taiwan Strait from the island of Taiwan.
The city said that 58 people from epidemic-hit areas were staying at the Xinjia Hotel for medical observation. All had tested negative for the virus. Most Chinese cities are isolating people coming from Hubei province, where the disease is most widespread, for 14 days.
Hotel workers and employees of an auto shop in the building were also inside at the time of the collapse.
More than 1,000 firefighters and seven rescue dogs were dispatched to the site, according to the Ministry of Emergency Management. News photos showed rescue workers with lights bringing out people, some bloodied by the collapse. Rubble could be seen on cars in front of the building.
China, where the new virus first emerged in December, has confirmed more than 80,000 cases, about 75 percent of the global total. More than 3,000 people have died in China. Most of the cases have been in Wuhan, an inland city in Hubei province about 670 kilometers (475 miles) northwest of Quanzhou.

Hotel used for coronavirus quarantine collapses in China, leaving dozens trapped in rubble

Rescue workers are seen on the site where a hotel being used for the novel coronavirus quarantine collapsed in the southeast Chinese port city of Quanzhou, Fujian province, China March 7, 2020.
cnsphoto via REUTERS
About 30 people remained trapped early on Sunday after a five-storey hotel being used for coronavirus quarantine collapsed in the southeast Chinese port city of Quanzhou, state media said.
About four hours after the collapse, the Quanzhou municipality said 38 of the 70 or so people who had been in the Quanzhou Xinjia Hotel had been rescued.
A video stream posted by the government-backed Beijing News site showed rescue workers in orange overalls clambering over rubble and twisted steelwork carrying people towards ambulances.
The hotel collapsed at about 7:30 p.m. (1130 GMT) on Saturday evening.
"I was at a gas station and heard a loud noise. I looked up and the whole building collapsed. Dust was everywhere, and glass fragments were flying around," a witness said in a video posted on the Miaopai streaming app.
"I was so terrified that my hands and legs were shivering."
A woman named only by her surname, Chen, told the Beijing News website that relatives including her sister had been under quarantine at the hotel as prescribed by local regulations after returning from Hubei province, where the coronavirus emerged.
She said they had been scheduled to leave soon after completing their 14 days of isolation.
"I can't contact them, they're not answering their phones, she said.
"I'm under quarantine too (at another hotel) and I'm very worried, I don't know what to do. They were healthy, they took their temperatures every day, and the tests showed that everything was normal."
The municipality said 36 emergency rescue vehicles such as cranes and excavators, 67 firefighting vehicles, 15 ambulances, and more than 700 firefighters, medical and other rescue workers were at the scene as the operation stretched into the night.
Quanzhou is a port city on the Taiwan Strait in the province of Fujian with a population of more than 8 million.
The official People's Daily said the hotel had opened in June 2018 with 80 rooms.
Beijing News' video stream was viewed by more than 2 million Weibo users on Saturday evening, and the hotel's collapse was the top trending topic on the Weibo site, China's close equivalent to Twitter.
Some users demanded a investigation into how the hotel could have collapsed.
Anger has been building up against the authorities in China over their early handling of the coronavirus outbreak, which has killed more than 3,300 people globally, most of them in China.
The Fujian provincial government said that as of Friday, the province had 296 cases of coronavirus and 10,819 people had been placed under observation after being classified as suspected close contacts.
The official Xinhua News Agency said the committee responsible for working safety under the State Council, China's cabinet, had sent an emergency working team to the site.

Roberto Martinez Says Eden Hazard Will Play for Real Madrid Again Before Belgium

Quality Sport Images/Getty ImagesBelgium boss Roberto Martinez said Eden Hazard will play for Real Madrid again before the national team, and he expects the winger to be at UEFA Euro 2020.
Martinez had previously put Hazard's recovery from a fractured ankle at three months, but he is confident Hazard will feature again for Los Blancos.
Per Marca's Jose Felix Diaz, he said:
"The recovery deadlines are impossible to determine because you have to see the operation and determine the deadlines from there.
"The first two weeks are important, but knowing Eden and how he's worked on other small injuries he has had, we are sure that we will have him with us [at Euro 2020].
"We'll see him in Real Madrid's shirt before the national team's shirt."
Hazard will undergo surgery on the injury in Dallas on Thursday, and Martinez said he is "very calm and very positive" ahead of the procedure.
HLN's Kristof Terreur gave further insight into Real's decision to send him to the U.S. for an operation:
The 29-year-old suffered the injury in Madrid's 1-0 defeat to Levante on February 22.
He had only just returned on February 16 from an ankle fracture he suffered in November, which kept him out for 16 games.
The Belgian was virtually always healthy during his time at Chelsea:
In total, he has made just 15 appearances in his debut season for Real Madrid. In that time, he has scored once and assisted five goals.
Reflecting on Real's 2-1 defeat at home to Manchester City in the first leg of their UEFA Champions League last-16 tie, Spanish football commentator Eduardo Alvarez noted their struggles in the final third in Hazard's absence:
If he's to feature again for Real in La Liga this season, he'll need to return before their final fixture on May 24. The Champions League final is on May 30, but making it there doesn't look likely after their clash with City.
As for Belgium, only Jan Vertonghen has more caps than Hazard's 106 and only Romelu Lukaku has more than his 32 goals.

Four arrests over 10 migrants found in lorry in Belgium

Image copyright NCA Image caption The lorry was stopped in Belgium after a tip-off from the UK's National Crime Agency

Four men have been arrested in a people smuggling investigation after 10 people, mostly under-18s, were found in the back of a lorry in Belgium.

The lorry was searched by the Belgian authorities near Ghent on Thursday after they received information from the UK's National Crime Agency (NCA).
The lorry driver, a 64-year-old man from Glasgow in Scotland, was arrested.
Two Irishmen were later arrested in Dover, England, and a fourth man was detained in Northern Ireland.
The UK arrests were made by the NCA and searches have also been carried out at properties in Kent and in Cushendall, County Antrim.
Two suspected firearms were seized at an address in Kent.
The Irish nationals arrested in Dover are aged 39 and 48.
The man arrested in Northern Ireland is 30 years old and was detained after presenting himself to Antrim police station following contact between the NCA and his lawyers.
All three are being questioned by NCA investigators on suspicion of facilitating illegal immigration.
The lorry was carrying tyres when it was stopped and searched.
The people discovered in the back of the vehicle are thought to be from south east Asia.
Two of them are adults and eight are juveniles, according to the NCA.
Its regional head of investigation, Gerry McLean, said they had been put at great risk.
"Our close working with our Belgian partners in this instance has led to the safeguarding of a number of migrants who had been put in a very dangerous situation, and we are grateful for their support," he said.
"We have seen only recently in Essex the tragic consequences which these types of attempts can have."
Mr McLean was referring to the deaths of 39 Vietnamese migrants whose bodies were found in a lorry in Essex in October.
Belgian prosecutor Frank Demeester added: "This kind of human smuggling is very dangerous, and the operation proves once more that international cooperation works in the fight against this type of organised crime."

Germany tweets to deter Syrian refugees, fearing 'repeat of 2015'

The German government – anxious about the political consequences of a “repeat of 2015” – is tolerating Greece’s decision to suspend asylum claims at its borders and has launched a social media campaign to deter Syrian refugees from embarking on a journey to central Europe.
About 12,500 people are estimated to be waiting on the Turkish side of the Greek border after the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, said on Saturday he would open his country’s borders for refugees fleeing the nine-year war in Syria to cross into Europe.
Thousands of protesters gathered outside Angela Merkel’s chancellory in Berlin on Tuesday night, calling on her to advocate opening the EU’s borders, but her government has declined to publicly criticise the Greek government for suspending asylum claims for one month.
“We don’t want a repeat of the year 2015”, said Horst Seehofer, the conservative interior minister in Merkel’s cabinet, referring to the arrival of approximately 1 million asylum seekers in Germany after the country decided not to close its borders five years ago.
The situation on the EU’s outer borders escalated further on Wednesday morning, with reports of Greek authorities firing teargas and stun grenades to repulse a push by migrants to cross its land border from Turkey.
In 2015, social media played a crucial role in drawing many refugees to Germany, after an ambiguously worded tweet from the federal agency for migration and refugees led many Syrians to believe the country was no longer enforcing the Dublin process for handling applications.
Tweets sent by the German interior ministry in Arabic, Farsi, English and German on Tuesday night looked designed to suppress similar pull-effects this time around.
“We need orderly conditions at the EU’s external border,” the tweets read. “We will use our best efforts to support Greece in achieving this. Europe’s borders are not open for #refugees from #Turkey, and neither are our German borders.”
A German government spokesperson said on Wednesday that the country would not seek a unilateral solution to the dramatic situation on Greece’s border: “We are looking for a European situation, Germany cannot do it alone,” said Ulrike Demmer.
Seehofer said his government was, however, open to joining a “coalition of the willing” that would take in about 5,000 minors from Greek migrant camps.
Turkish authorities said one person was killed and five wounded in clashes near the border village of Kastanies on Wednesday – an assertion the Greek government strongly rejected.
“I deny it categorically,” said Stelios Petsas, a Greek government spokesman. “Turkey fabricates and channels fake news against our country.”
Under the conditions of a €6bn deal struck between the EU and Turkey in 2016, both sides said they would work together to stop migrants from crossing over into the EU.
While the EU has allocated the promised funds, Turkey says the money is inadequate and claims to have already spent more than $30bn helping 3.6 million Syrian refugees living in its territory.
Gerald Knaus, the chairman of the European Stability Initiative thinktank, who is seen as the initial architect of the EU-Turkey deal, called for a new pact with Turkey in order to avoid a new refugee crisis.
Knaus criticised the EU’s reaction to the crisis on the Greek-Turkish border. “We are witnessing a watershed in international asylum policy,” he told the German newspaper Die Welt.
“What the EU is currently doing is Donald Trump’s biggest dream: to abolish the right to asylum and militarise the border. If this approach becomes the norm in Europe, then 2020 will be the year in which the Geneva refugee convention dies.”

Germany pledges €100 million in aid for Idlib conflict

However, Berlin has attached strict conditions to the additional funds for the UN. Germany's foreign minister said it was up to Turkey and Russia to fulfill the requirements.
© Getty Images/AFP/A. Al-Atrash Provided by Deutsche Welle Germany promised €100 million ($111 million) in aid on Thursday for people in the conflict-ridden region of Idlib, Syria's last rebel enclave.
Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said Germany would offer the United Nations the additional funding as he embarked for a meeting with his European Union counterparts in Zagreb, Croatia. He said humanitarian organizations must "continue to be given cross-border access to people in need".
However, the foreigner minister emphasized: "There are clear preconditions for this: Humanitarian access and the protection of aid workers and the population must be guaranteed. He added, "What we need now is an immediate ceasefire and the provision of supplies for the one million internally displaced persons."
Read more: Idlib: 'I'd rather suffer bombs than Assad'
'Humanitarian catastrophe' Maas urged Turkey and Russia to establish such preconditions and called on Moscow "to exert pressure on the Assad regime to finally stop the attacks on hospitals and schools."
Russia-backed Syrian regime forces are battling in the north of the country to reclaim Iblib.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Russian President Vladimir Putin are scheduled to meet in a separate meeting in Moscow on Thursday to discuss the escalation of violence in Idlib province amid the monthslong Russian-backed Syrian government offensive there.
"The scale of the humanitarian catastrophe in Idlib is dramatic," Maas said.
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mvb/rt (AFP, dpa)
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Germany underestimated far-right terror for 'too long'

The threat of far-right terror in Germany has not been taken seriously, the head of Germany's parliament told lawmakers in the wake of the Hanau attacks. Wolfgang Schäuble said the violence did not occur in a vacuum.
© picture-alliance/blickwinkel/McPHOTO/C. Ohde Provided by Deutsche Welle Germany must admit that it underestimated the threat of far-right terror for too long, the president of the Bundestag told lawmakers on Thursday.
The country must do more to smash far-right networks, while also addressing the problem of Islamophobia in society, Wolfgang Schäuble told Germany's lower legislature.
Read more: After attack, Hanau takes a stand against racism
Schäuble, addressing a parliamentary debate on the Hanau attacks, called for "sincerity from the state, which must admit to having underestimated the extreme right-wing danger for too long."
"The decisive answer to this must be to uncover radical networks with all constitutional means and to smash right-wing extremist associations," said Schäuble, adding that the state must "finally get better at consistently enforcing the law".
The perpetrator of the Hanau attack killed nine people with foreign roots at both a cafe and a shisha bar in the city. Authorities judged the murders to have been racially-motivated.
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Schäuble said that such crimes "do not happen in a vacuum" but in a "poisoned social climate in which resentment towards 'otherness' — and the most absurd conspiracy theories — are stoked."
Minorities had been demonized to such an extent, Schäuble said, that hate campaigns — and even murder — were accompanied by "perverse applause on social networks."
Read more: 'Ferhat wanted to do something good for Hanau'
He also addressed the topic of Islamophobia. "Nothing justifies belittling, denigrating, persecuting, attacking people because of their origin or belief," said Schäuble, while adding that people's concern about immigration and social change needed to be taken seriously.
The killing spree in Hanau — near the city of Frankfurt — ended when the 43-year-old German gunman returned home, killing his mother before turning the pistol on himself. Thousands joined protests against far-right violence in the wake of the attacks, with many accusing the far-right Alternative for Germany, which holds 91 of 709 seats in Germany's lower house, of having fueled resentment.
A memorial service for the victims was held on Wednesday, attended by German Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Frank-Walter Steinmeier.
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Author: Richard Connor