<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;color:#222222"><span style="background: white; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; widows: 2; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; float: none; word-spacing: 0px;">At least 39 people were missing and 23 trapped asa building, comprising a hotel, apartments and a cinema collapsed on Friday inChina's central Hunan province, authorities said. The reason for the collapseis under investigation.</span><br style="font-variant-ligatures: normal;font-variant-caps: normal;orphans: 2;text-align:start;widows: 2;-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;text-decoration-thickness: initial;text-decoration-style: initial;text-decoration-color: initial;word-spacing:0px" />''<br style="font-variant-ligatures: normal;font-variant-caps: normal;orphans: 2;text-align:start;widows: 2;-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;text-decoration-thickness: initial;text-decoration-style: initial;text-decoration-color: initial;word-spacing:0px" />''<span style="background: white; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; widows: 2; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; float: none; word-spacing: 0px;">State media reported, "Tenants had made structuralchanges to the premises to varying degrees." President Xi Jinping has ordered athorough investigation into the cause of the collapse. Building collapses arenot uncommon in China, due to weak safety and construction standards as well ascorruption among officials tasked with enforcement.</span><br style="font-variant-ligatures: normal;font-variant-caps: normal;orphans: 2;text-align:start;widows: 2;-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;text-decoration-thickness: initial;text-decoration-style: initial;text-decoration-color: initial;word-spacing:0px" />''<br style="font-variant-ligatures: normal;font-variant-caps: normal;orphans: 2;text-align:start;widows: 2;-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;text-decoration-thickness: initial;text-decoration-style: initial;text-decoration-color: initial;word-spacing:0px" />''<span style="background: white; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; widows: 2; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; float: none; word-spacing: 0px;">In January, an explosion triggered by a suspectedgas leak brought down a building in the city of Chongqing, killing more than adozen people. Twenty-five people also lost their lives in June 2021 when a gasblast hit a residential compound in the city of Shiyan.</span><br style="font-variant-ligatures: normal;font-variant-caps: normal;orphans: 2;text-align:start;widows: 2;-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;text-decoration-thickness: initial;text-decoration-style: initial;text-decoration-color: initial;word-spacing:0px" />''<br style="font-variant-ligatures: normal;font-variant-caps: normal;orphans: 2;text-align:start;widows: 2;-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;text-decoration-thickness: initial;text-decoration-style: initial;text-decoration-color: initial;word-spacing:0px" />''<span style="background: white; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; widows: 2; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; float: none; word-spacing: 0px;">The same month, 18 people were killed and moreinjured when a fire broke out at a martial arts school, with state mediareporting that all the victims were boarding school pupils.</span></span><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif"><o:p /></span></p><br />