Land subsidence sinks building in S China

NANNING - Land subsidence has caused a building to sink into the ground near a school in the city of Nanning, capital of southwest China's Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, local authorities said Saturday.

Local authorities said a fissure 1.5 meters deep and 2.5 meters wide opened up Friday evening under a building just outside the gate of the Tanluo Second Primary Middle School in the city's Xixiangtang district, causing six other buildings to become tilted. Another building was cracked by the fissure, according to local authorities.

Prior to the incident, the school had hired workers to drill a well for drinking water because of a water shortage, local authorities said.

The subsidence has also affected four villages in the vicinity, with 844 locals evacuated thus far. The local government provided food and other relief to the evacuated people Saturday morning.

No casualties have been reported. Experts are presently analyzing the fissure and investigating its cause.