Guangzhou: Heavy rains that battered Guangzhou last night have caused wide-scale flooding and traffic chaos. Around 8.41pm on Monday, it was reported that the rain has caused the collapse of the Tianhe Olympic Badminton Center in Guangzhou. The facility’s walls and ceilings were made of inflatable airbags, and it has 20 badminton courts.
According to local residents, the ceiling of the badminton gym fell down abruptly when it was raining heavily outside and over ten people were playing badminton inside the facility at that time. People ran out of the gym immediately, but about 10 people were trapped inside the collapsed building. Some residents believed the roof to have been crushed by the downpour.
Local fire departments rushed to scene in respond to the emergency immediately, and were able to rescue those 10 victims that were trapped inside the collapsed inflatable structure. A man and a woman were reported to have suffered light injuries.
The rescue units then repeated three more comprehensive searches, to ensure that no one else was still trapped inside the collapse structure.
Fortunately, no one was seriously injured, and no one died from that incident. The cause of the accident was under investigation.
