Late in the evening on December 4th, a sudden ground collapse occurred at the construction site of Segment 5 of the Shenjiang Railway, resulting in at least 13 construction workers at the scene going missing. Local businesses reported that cracks had appeared on the road in the afternoon prior to the incident.
On the 5th, a nearby business owner told the New Beijing News that cracks had already been noticed on the road on the afternoon of the 4th, and personnel were sent to address the issue. After the accident, both their business and factory employees were evacuated. Around 9 p.m. that night, a passerby mentioned seeing traffic police setting up a cordon, converting the road from two-way traffic to one-way only.
Another resident informed a news reporter that when they passed by the area after work on the 4th, it was still passable as a one-way lane, but on this day, both sides of the road had collapsed. According to comments in online videos, the diameter of the large pit is estimated to be around 30 meters wide.
The news stirred up discussions on the internet.
Many netizens remarked, “I’m in Bao’an District, our construction site had to halt operations for a few days. Shenzhen is likely to undergo a comprehensive inspection and rectification citywide for the next few days!” “Guangzhou has also suspended work to conduct safety inspections.” “In recent years, with the extensive construction of metro lines, the underground in Shenzhen has been wholly hollowed out. Sinkholes of varying sizes frequently occur, and this time appears to be particularly severe.”
Some netizens questioned why emergency safety measures were not taken when cracks were already noticed before the collapse, leading to 13 individuals going missing. They asked whether it was a natural disaster or a man-made tragedy.
Others raised doubts about the quality of the engineering, stating, “If it was well-built with genuine materials, even if the pit were larger, it shouldn’t have collapsed, right? Ultimately, it boils down to cutting corners and the resulting accidents due to collapse, where one cannot happen without the other.”
Several netizens revealed that their comments and posts were being restricted, mentioning, “There are hardly any people posting on Douyin, many posts have been taken down.” “Mine was one of the first, and it got taken down too, it was related to the collapse site.”
(Contributions to this article made by reporter Luo Ya.)