Global Courant
BEIJING — Thousands of people have been evacuated from several high-rise apartment buildings in the northern Chinese city of Tianjin in recent days after the collapsed land caused large cracks in nearby streets, according to state media and the local government.
Large cracks appeared on roads near a housing complex in Tianjin’s Jinnan district and geological experts said they were most likely caused by underground cavities below a depth of 1,200 meters, the Tianjin government said on social media on Thursday.
As of June 3, a total of 3,899 residents of at least three 25-story high-rise buildings had been evacuated to nearby hotels, the state-backed Global Times newspaper quoted the district government as saying.
The Tianjin government called the incident a “sudden geological disaster” following preliminary information from geological experts and various government departments after they surveyed, mapped and verified the site.
“The situation is very rare,” said an expert questioned about the incident at the Tianjin government’s municipal headquarters.
It cannot be ruled out that drilling of geothermal resources has led to soil loss and subsidence in the area, the Tianjin government said.
Experts said the tall buildings facing the street were affected to varying degrees.
Roads could be seen bent and warped in social media photos, while other photos showed a piece of building wall tile collapsed to the floor.
The incident has raised concerns about building safety in China, where the government has enforced stricter rules and policies and issued hefty penalties for lax property management.
In addition, the Chinese government has recently held several high-level meetings on geological and covert disaster preparedness.
