AFP: Death toll from Chinese building collapse rises to 13

BEIJING, Aug 19 (AFP) - The confirmed death toll from a building collapse in northeast China's Harbin city was raised to 13 on Tuesday, with another two people missing and presumed killed, state media said.

The new toll followed the gruesome discovery of five more bodies by rescue workers sifting through the rubble of the underground shopping center where the cave-in happened three days earlier, Xinhua news agency reported.

Two local residents were still missing and were believed by their relatives to be trapped, and most likely dead, inside the building, Xinhua said.

Six of the 13 confirmed dead were passers-by who fell into the cave-in at the time of the accident. The rest were mostly employees at the underground shopping center, according to Xinhua.

The cave-ins occurred at almost the same time as an earthquake measuring 5. 9 on the Richter Scale hit neighboring Inner Mongolia, with the epicenter some 500 kilometers (310 miles) west of Harbin.

No one has linked the cave-in to the earthquake, but the temblor was felt in Harbin.

http://www.ptd.net/webnews/wed/cr/Qchina-accident-building.R9oH_DaJ.html

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