Shopping Center Collapse in China Kills 8, Injures 32

Rescue workers on Saturday pulled bodies from the rubble of a shopping center that collapsed, killing eight people and injuring 32 others in southeastern China, state media and a city official reported.

Initially, more than 100 people were believed to have been trapped under debris after the accident Friday afternoon in Dongguan, state media reported.

But rescue teams working for more than 24 hours found eight dead and 32 wounded, said a duty officer with the city government, who gave only his surname, Ye. He said the rescue effort ended after workers sorting through debris turned up no signs of additional casualties.

Investigators blamed a legacy of illegal construction for the disaster, and Ye said that police detained three architects and engineers for questioning.

Built in 1992, the one-story, privately managed shopping center sat on an inadequate wooden foundation, the New China News Agency reported. It said workers began adding unauthorized second and third stories in September.

Workers noticed cracks in the upper stories just minutes before the collapse, the report said.

China’s two decades of economic growth have been accompanied by shoddy and illegal construction and lax enforcement of building codes, sometimes with catastrophic consequences.