Inferior bricks blamed for Yunnan quake fatalities
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Students use a makeshift classroom Monday following the earthquake in Yingjiang, Yunnan Province. Regular classes are expected to resume Monday. |
Nearly half of the fatalities from last week's earthquake in Yingjiang, Yunnan Province, were caused by collapsed buildings made with hollow bricks, an inferior material, according to a report.
The quake, which killed 25 and left 314 people injured, prompted authorities to ban the use of hollow bricks in future construction projects.
Beijing-based Caijing magazine reported Monday that three students and eight others died directly because of the low-quality bricks.
Qu Yonghuan and Li Jingrong, high school students, were killed while taking a bath in a school built with the hollow bricks. The report also said that Liu Yuhua, 50, a retiree, also died for the same reason.
She died from bricks that fell from the roof. But the walls made from ordinary bricks were left intact.
Yin Anqiang, the director of the local housing and urban-rural development bureau, told the magazine that "hollow bricks are no longer to be produced and used as house construction materials."
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