Dozens feared buried under China building

Beijing, June 6: Dozens of elderly people were feared buried today after an exhibition hall collapsed in southwest China, Xinhua news agency said.

People had run out of the two-storey building, their clothes covered in dust, one witness was quoted as saying.

The former agriculture exhibition centre in Leshan collapsed at around 7.20 a.m. when at least 100 people, mostly old people, were inside to attend a lecture, a witness told Xinhua.

The back part of the building had collapsed, and fortunately most of the old people were sitting in the front, Xinhua said.

''Rescuers have removed more than 30 survivors, who have been sent to three hospitals, from the debris, but no deaths have been reported,'' said a spokesman for the city's public security bureau.

A policeman downplayed the accident and said only about 20 people had been injured. No one had died, he told Reuters.

Leshan is a popular tourist destination 100 km southwest of Chengdu, the provincial capital of Sichuan province, and famous for its Grand Buddha, carved into a cliff face and standing more than 70 metres high.

There had been heavy rain in the area in recent days.

''My wife told me there was an accident, so I came out to have a look,'' Li Xijian, who lives 50 metres (yards) from the site, told Xinhua.

''Nearly 1,000 people were watching and I couldn't get through the crowd.'' A resident named Wang told Reuters the accident scene had been closed to the public.

''You can't get there now,'' he said. ''The old people went there this morning for a free medical lecture.'' The exhibition centre, built in 1959, is largely unused but occasionally serves as the venue for old people's dances.

Reuters>