Death toll in collapse of hotel used as quarantine facility in China rises to 11

The death toll from the collapse of a hotel used as a quarantine facility in China's Fujian province amid the coronavirus outbreak has risen to 11, local officials said on Monday.

The Xinjia Hotel in Licheng district in Quanzhou city was used to quarantine and observe people who had come to the province during the novel coronavirus prevention and control and had come in contact with the virus patients.

Fifty people have been pulled out of the debris of the hotel so far and among them 11 have died, the rescue headquarters said.

The rescuers found a mother and her child in the rubble. Efforts are underway to rescue them, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

"We had just finished lunch when the building suddenly collapsed," said Dong Lin, a guest in room 506.

"I thought it was an earthquake. Before I reacted, the whole building collapsed. I called out to my wife but I couldn't find her."