Official: house collapse in China crushes 4

BEIJING — A two-story house in central China collapsed Friday morning while being lifted off its foundation, crushing four people to death and burying an unknown number of others, the local government said.

Dozens of people were helping to move the house, which sat on low-lying ground, when it collapsed, said the Yanjin county government said in a statement on its website. In addition to the four dead, others were buried, said a Yanjin government official who would give only his surname, Zheng.

The state-run China News Service said 37 people were working at the site at the time of the accident. Police, firefighters and emergency crews were dispatched to the village in central Henan province about 650 kilometers, or 400 miles, south of Beijing.

The government and state media accounts did not say whether the house was being moved to a different location or just being placed on a new, higher foundation.