What’s new: More than 1,000 residents were evacuated from a 14-story mixed-use building in Shenzhen’s Longgang district at around midnight Thursday after an explosion-like sound was heard at the property, spurring emergency agencies to act.
Local authorities found the noise resulted from the cracking of a load-bearing column in a store on the first floor of the 23-year-old building, which has commercial and residential tenants.
Videos provided to Caixin by the operator of a store in the building showed concrete encasing the load bearing column had come off, exposing steel bars, some of which were bent out of shape.
The building has been sealed off since the evacuation and residents have not been allowed to return. A source close to local emergency authorities told Caixin that the cause of the damage to the load-bearing column has yet to be determined.
The background: This is just the latest in a number of similar incidents that have befallen residential and office buildings in the city.
In May 2021, a 75-story skyscraper in the city shook, sparking a panicked evacuation. However, local authorities later determined that the building was safe and that aging masts and wind-related “vortex-induced vibration” were responsible for the shaking.
In August 2019, a residential building in the city’s Luohu district tilted, resulting in the evacuation of more than 1,200 residents. The building, constructed in the 1980s, was later demolished for safety reasons.
Contact reporter Lu Zhenhua (zhenhualu@caixin.com)
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