Up to 11 shoe factory workers in Zhejiang Province have died after a building they were working in collapsed on Saturday afternoon.

According to Xinhua, over 50 people were in the building in Wenling City when the incident occurred. However, nine of them managed to escape relatively unscathed. About 42 of them were rescued and transported to a medical center. However, nine of them died.

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The death toll from the incident initially stood at nine, but officials later revised the number of dead people to 11 after realizing that three people remain unaccounted for. They have since been presumed to be dead, CCTV reported. A large team of firefighters are reportedly leading the rescue efforts to retrieve the bodies of the missing people.

At the moment, it is unclear what caused the building to collapse. Officials have reportedly launched an investigation into the incident. There are speculations that the construction of a pool on the roof of the building may have caused it to collapse.

Several buildings have collapsed throughout the country this year. In one dramatic incident last month, a couple saved up to 70 people moments before the storey building they were staying in collapsed in Guizhou Province, according to CCTV.

Experts generally blame poor construction works and lax inspection for these incidents. Urban centers in China are expanding at a rapid pace, thus the need for buildings. More than a billion people have migrated from rural parts of the country to its urban centers over the past few decades.

Wenling, a coastal city, has experienced a lot of development over the past few decades. The city boasts of several factories including several e-waste recycling centers and shoe factories.  

TagsWenling City Factory Collapse, Zhejiang Province Factory Collapse, China Shoe Factory Collapse