Suzhou hotel collapse kills eight with nine still missing

Authorities say six people have been rescued from the rubble in the eastern Chinese city

Rescue workers search for survivors in the rubble of a collapsed hotel in Suzhou.

Eight people are dead and nine are missing after a budget hotel collapsed in the eastern Chinese city of Suzhou, the local government said on Tuesday.

Six people were rescued from the rubble of the Siji Kaiyuan hotel, which collapsed on Monday afternoon, the government of the Wujiang district said on social media.

Authorities had suggested that 14 people were rescued, but offered the new tally after “further analysis and screening of new information".

Authorities have not yet reported the cause of the collapse.

The hotel opened in 2018 and had 54 guest rooms, its listing on travel website Ctrip said.

Images from the scene showed rescue workers searching for survivors in large piles of rubble.

Suzhou, a city of more than 12 million people, is about 100 kilometres west of Shanghai and is a popular tourist destination because of its canals and centuries-old gardens.

Building collapses are not uncommon in China and are often blamed on lax construction standards or corruption.

The collapse of a quarantine hotel in the southern city of Quanzhou in March last year killed 29 people, with authorities later finding that three floors were illegally added to the building's original four-storey structure.

In May, one of China's tallest skyscrapers, the SEG Plaza in the southern city of Shenzhen, was evacuated after it shook a number of times over several days.