At least 16 people were killed and 29 injured when the roof of a new house in a northern Chinese village collapsed during a celebration for its completion, the official Xinhua News Agency said today.
The collapse happened yesterday afternoon in Wulanji, a village in the Inner Mongolia region, while the owner Yang Hongyi was throwing a banquet for 50 people who helped him build it, Xinhua said.
The roof beams had been welded together but the joints snapped because they were weighed down by a thick layer of heavy clay, Xinhua said.
“The roof suddenly fell in on them” and more than 40 people were trapped under the collapsed beams, it said.