Death toll rises to 13 in Quanzhou hotel collapse

The death toll from Saturday's hotel collapse in Quanzhou, Fujian province, increased to 13 on Monday evening as rescuers brought in heavy machinery to help with the increasingly difficult rescue work.

Fifty-two people had been pulled out of the wreckage of the Xinjia Hotel in the city's Licheng district as of 8 pm on Monday and 13 of them were dead, said the rescue headquarters.

Of the 71 people trapped by the sudden collapse at around 7:15 pm on Saturday, 19 remain trapped. Over 1,000 rescuers have been involved in the rescue efforts.

Rescuers had to crawl into gaps among steel frames, concrete and iron plates to detect life while resorting to heavy machines and electric saws to dig downward.

However, they only managed to pull out three people from the rubble on Monday as of 8 pm. It took rescuers about four hours to get one of them out.

Ye Zhiyong, a commander with a Fujian fire rescue team, said the rescue work has been increasingly difficult as rescuers dig further downward.

"The seven-floor steel frame building was completely reduced to rubble. The structures of different floors piled up and the beams and pillars all crowded together, making the situation extremely complicated," he said.