ROSEMARY CHURCH, WORLD NEWS: More than a hundred people are trapped and feared dead after a shopping mall collapsed in China. It happened in Guangdong Province in southern China, while workers were constructing an additional floor. As Mike Chinoy reports, such accidents in China are becoming increasingly common.</s>MIKE CHINOY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It was the latest in a series of construction disasters in China. A two-story shopping mall in the town on Dongguan an hour's drive north of Hong Kong, collapsed, trapping scores of people. The mall's ground floor contained dozens of shops and restaurants. Chinese media reports say construction workers were illegally adding another floor to the building when the accident happened. The contractor has reportedly been detained. Rescue teams worked frantically to pull victims from the debris. One Chinese Web site quoted a shopkeeper as saying he'd noted the building's floor sinking in the days before the collapse. The Web site said the mall had been built on top of a drainage ditch that had been cemented over. Accidents like this are not unusual in China. As the country has experienced an economic boom in recent years, there has been an explosion of shoddy construction projects - buildings, bridges, roads. The government has sought to impose higher standards to curb the problem, but with limited effect. Especially in Dongguan, one of the earliest boom towns in southern China, which has a reputation for lawlessness. Mike Chinoy, CNN, Hong Kong.
Construction Accidents In China Becoming More Common