Faulty construction and poor foundations have been blamed for Monday's collapse of houses in Wenzhou, a port city in east China’s Zhejiang Province, and the deaths of 22 people.

Rescuers search for survivors at the accident site in Lucheng industrial district in Wenzhou, east China's Zhejiang Province, Oct. 11, 2016. [Photo: Xinhua]

Zhu Chongmin, director of the city‘s Lucheng District, told a press conference yesterday that the houses had been built by farmers in the 1980s on a tidal flat.

An initial investigation found there had been no indication the houses were in a dangerous condition and they had collapsed without warning.

There would be a further investigation to ascertain the exact cause of the collapse, he said.

Recent heavy rain may have been a contributing factor.

Rescue workers told China News Service that five neighboring houses built in the 1970s, which had remained standing, were being demolished as a safety precaution.

Zhang Geng, Wenzhou's mayor, said a thorough check of local buildings, especially older structures and farmers' houses, had begun.

According to news website thepaper.cn, the houses that collapsed had been due to be pulled down. Though some doors, windows and even stairways had been removed, they were still being lived in by migrant workers.

Rescue work ended yesterday morning after 22 bodies had been pulled from the debris. Six people who had survived the collapse are in a stable condition in hospital.

The last to be rescued was a 3-year-old girl, found alive in her dead father's arms. She was able to speak, telling nurses she was thirsty when admitted to hospital, China Central Television reported.

Firefighter Sun Jing told CCTV they discovered her father at first, then her mother and then the toddler. "The couple lay motionless, facing downward. They tightly held the girl in the middle. We realized the girl was alive when her right foot kicked a little," Sun said.

He said she had survived because her father, a 26-year-old shoe factory worker, had put himself between her and the falling debris.

"We found a cement block, about 20 centimeters thick and 1 meter wide, on the back of her father," he said.

The girl, who suffered only minor injuries, was found more than 12 hours after the collapse, CCTV said.

"The child was able to survive entirely thanks to the fact that her dad used his own flesh and blood to prop up a life-saving space for his daughter," a rescuer told China Youth Daily.

Wang Qingxue, a 53-year-old migrant worker from central China"s Henan Province, was among the first to be rescued. He told the Qianjiang Evening News he had shared a 10-square-meter unit with four other workers.

"I had thought someone was breaking into our room when I heard the boom. I tried to grab my mobile phone and wallet, at which point I felt like I was in a falling elevator. I fell to the ground in a flash," he said.

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