China school collapse: city authorities under fire for failing to tell parents what was going on
- Most victims were reported to be members of a middle school girls’ volleyball team who were training at the time of the accident in Qiqihar
- Videos from a hospital appear to show a bereaved father complaining that the girls’ parents were not being kept informed about the rescue operation
State news agency Xinhua said the collapse at the No 34 Middle School in Qiqihar in Heilongjiang province on Sunday killed 11 people and injured four others.
The official Heilongjiang Daily said police had detained personnel from a construction company although neither local police nor official media reports said how many were in custody or what positions they held.
There were 19 people in the building at the time of the collapse, according to Xinhua, which reported four people had escaped.
Officials said rescue efforts were complete. They did not reveal details of the victims but several Chinese media outlets reported that most were school children.
A widely circulated video filmed inside one of the hospitals where the injured were treated showed a man claiming to be the father of a dead pupil who said no one from the local government, the hospital or police had updated parents about the rescue progress for five hours.
Other parents in the video echoed his complaints about the lack of transparency.
