On Tuesday morning, a building on Zhongshan South Street near the Huangpu River collapsed due to earth subsidence blamed on work on nearby cross-river rail tunnels.

Loose sand reportedly poured into the tunnels being built 20 meters underground.

The dyke, about 100 meters from the collapsed building, began slowly sinking on Tuesday night, according to Su Ping, an official from the drainage facility department under Shanghai Water Authority.

The wall cracked in the small hours of yesterday because of the combined effects of subsidence and the rising night tide, according to Su.

A site visit yesterday afternoon found that a pool of water had formed, extending from the cracked wall almost to the collapsed building site. Several other structures had also begun tilting and cracks had appeared in nearby roads as a result of the subsidence.

The city government is closely monitoring the accident and has mobilized all the relevant departments.

More than 400 armed police were dispatched to the site, piling up sand bags to form a wall 4 meters high and 30 meters wide by 5 pm yesterday as a temporary measure to contain the Huangpu River.

Sand was also dumped around the fractured wall as a secondary safeguard.

But with this afternoon's tide forecast to reach 4.3 meters, the wall of sand bags had to be built higher still, officials said.

The city's flood season began on July 1.

Structurally unsound buildings around the site of the collapsed building were also being demolished yesterday to lighten the load on the sinking ground.

But sources on the rail tunnel construction site said the sand drifts were almost under control.

Officials yesterday could not estimate how much the damage would cost, but said it would be difficult to repair.

(China Daily July 3, 2003)