Thousands of people in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen fled from the surroundings of a 291-meter-tall skyscraper on Tuesday, after the building inexplicably began to sway.
The SEG Plaza in Shenzhen began to shake at around 12:30 pm local time. Some 15,000 people were inside, according to the official newspaper of the Shenzhen Municipal Communist Party Committee. Everyone inside was evacuated within 90 minutes, local authorities said.
Meanwhile, the pedestrians took videos and recorded the movement from below, unable to believe what was happening at the scene.
The tower houses a significant market for electronic and technology-related products in China. For this reason, the city quickly became a nodal business center in the country.
Local authorities investigating the cause of the movement said in a statement that they had not been found “aabnormalities in the main structure and the surrounding environment of the building”.
Despite having verified and analyzed the local seismic monitoring data, it appears that the wobble is not related to seismic movements.
However, several apartment buildings built in Shenzhen are reviewing the information. Even more so because the SEG Plaza houses thousands of people every day, who report to work there. In a city with 12 million people, a building like this collapsing could cause a great tragedy.
No skyscraper has ever collapsed in China., but smaller buildings, due to sometimes lax construction regulations. This is the case of a hotel requisitioned as a quarantine place against the coronavirus that, in March 2020, collapsed in the province of Fujian (east), killing 29 people.
More about SEG Plaza
The SEG Plaza, which was completed in 2000, is one of the most emblematic buildings in Shenzhen (south), the huge metropolis bordering Hong Kong. It is the 18th tallest building in Shenzhen and the 104th tallest in China, according to the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat skyscraper database.
Five of the world’s tallest skyscrapers are in China, including the Shanghai Tower, which has 128 stories and stands 632 meters tall.
But since last year, China has banned the construction of buildings over 500 meters high, a restriction that was already in place in some cities such as Beijing.
Source: Muyinteresante.com.mx