11 dead after middle school gym roof collapses onto volleyball practice in China, arrests made

Almost a dozen people, mostly young female volleyball players, are dead in China after the roof of a middle school gymnasium collapsed.

The concrete roof of a school gymnasium collapsed in China’s Qiqihar city near the Siberian border on Sunday with 19 people inside, prompting a search and rescue effort and questions as to what caused the incident.

Fifteen people are believed to have been trapped underneath the rubble. The last person was pulled from the debris with no vital signs on Monday, bringing the death count to 11. 

An initial investigation said a construction crew working on a new administrative building next to the gym had stored bags of perlite – used in plastering and internal finishing work – on the roof and it had grown heavy by absorbing water from the recent heavy rains striking much of the country, particularly the northwest.

It was not immediately clear if any victims were adults, but state radio reported on Sunday that the coach of the team was buried underneath the rubble.

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Eleven people are dead after a roof collapsed on a female volleyball team in China. (Reuters)

Following the incident, social media and the Baidu news website carried footage of angry parents complaining about what they said was a slow response and lack of communication from authorities. On Tuesday, Baidu ran photos and video testimonials to the players under the masthead “I’ve lost my very best friends.”

An overhead aerial view of the scene from social media pictures showed a collapsed roof with rescue workers in the gym next to large boulders of concrete.

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Rescuers conduct a search and rescue operation at the site of a roof collapse at a middle school gymnasium in Qiqihar, in northeast China’s Heilongjiang Province on Monday, July 24, 2023. (Wang Song/Xinhua via AP)

Other pictures showed large cranes hoisted on the side of the school building as rescue efforts continued.

Reuters reported that prosecutors in northeastern China have filed charged against the managers of the construction firm they believe is responsible for the collapse and individuals have been taken into custody.

Rescuers search for trapped victims at the site of a roof collapse in Qiqihar, China, on Monday, July 24, 2023. (Zhang Tao/Xinhua via AP)

School construction has been a contentious issue in China over the years dating back to 2008 when over 5,000 children were killed as a result of poorly constructed classrooms collapsing during an earthquake in the Sichuan province that killed nearly 90,000 people. 

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report