In a shocking incident, one of China's tallest skyscrapers, SEG Plaza, started to shake inexplicably leading to the immediate evacuation of the building on Tuesday. A report by SURFACES REPORTER (SR).
The incident occurred at around 1:00 PM in the afternoon when the 300 m tall building suddenly started shaking leading to widespread panic and immediate evacuation. Post the incident, the building was sealed shut as the expert probe the incident to know the probable cause as there was no earthquake at that time that could shake the tower.
Credit:Shenzhen pages Twitter
According to the various media posts on China's micro-blogging site Weibo, The 71-story plaza, home to major electronics market as well as various offices is now under investigation by the Emergency management officials who said that, "After checking and analysing the data of various earthquake monitoring stations across the city, there was no earthquake in Shenzhen today." The statement by the district also clarified that everyone inside had been safely evacuated and that no further movements of the building had been detected.
While, there has been no further activities happened since the accident, it is yet to be cleared by the authorities that how are they going to handle the now threatened town in the middle of a city of over 12 mn people.
Named after the semiconductor and electronics manufacturer Shenzhen Electronics Group, whose offices are based in the complex, it is the 18th tallest tower in Shenzhen. Chinese authorities have already banned the construction of skyscrapers taller than 500 metres. The move is aimed towards encouraging architects, urban planners and developers to "highlight Chinese characteristics" and also banned tacky "copycat" buildings modelled after world landmarks. Moreover, building collapses are not a rarity in China as rapid urbanisation and faulty building standards have led to haphazard construction that often led to such accidents.
Last May, a five-storey quarantine hotel in the south-eastern city of Quanzhou collapsed due to shoddy construction, killing 29.
The devastating 2008 Sichuan earthquake caused more than 69,000 deaths, and the disaster ignited a storm of public controversy over poorly constructed school buildings — dubbed "tofu dregs" — which collapsed killing thousands of students.
Text credit: ABC News
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