Nine people were confirmed dead and 13 others injured after a building under construction collapsed Monday in southwest China's Guizhou Province, a safety official said Tuesday.
The accident happened at around 11 a.m. Monday in Yangguan Village of Jinyang New District in the provincial capital Guiyang, said Yang Xiaoping, chief of the city's work safety administration, Xinhua reported.
Six people were killed at the scene and three others died in hospital, Yang said.
Jinyang New District official Ding Xudong said all the dead had been identified and members of their families had arrived in Guiyang by midday Tuesday.
Ding said the government had raised compensation funds for families of the deceased, and it would later seek reimbursement from the proprietor of the construction project.
Investigators said the four-story building that collapsed was an illegal construction project.
A businessman named Xu Xianyou had rented land from villager Huang Shengfei to build a plastic product plant, but the project never got the greenlight from the local government.
The local government's order to halt construction was ignored at least twice, said Ding.
Xu, his wife, Huang Shengfei and the prime contractor for the construction project had been taken into police custody after Monday's tragedy.
City authorities in Guiyang launched a campaign to ban illegal construction and guarantee safety on Tuesday.