Seven people including five Chinese nationals have been charged with criminal offences over the collapse of a building in Cambodia that has left 28 dead.

Three days after the unfinished building in Sihanoukville collapsed, the Chinese owner of the site, Chen Kun, and construction supervisor, Deng Xing Gui, were charged at Preah Sihanouk provincial court with involuntary manslaughter, causing unintentional injuries and damage.

Three other Chinese people were charged with conspiracy over the collapse, along with a Vietnamese and a Cambodian.

The charges carry a penalty of up to three years in jail and the trial will take place against a backdrop of mounting concern in the country about lax building standards involving Chinese construction companies.

The unfinished, seven-storey building collapsed early on Saturday on top of dozens of construction workers who slept each night on the second floor.

Rescue workers search for victims in the debris a day after an under-construction building collapsed in Sihanoukville. Photograph: Sun Rethy Kun/AFP/Getty Images

The condominium was being built in the thriving seaside town, which has been transformed in recent years by a mainly Chinese-led building boom catering to tourists who flock to newly established casinos.

Hopes of finding any more survivors had faded on Monday when two people were cut free from the tangled wreckage and carried out alive.

“I heard the sound of rescuers, I called for help but they didn’t hear me,” Ros Sitha, one of the two found alive on Monday, told Agence France-Presse.

“There was a dead body near me. I didn’t have water to drink,” the forty-one year old said from his hospital bed. “I am so lucky to survive.”

Authorities on Monday put the death toll at 28 with at least 25 injured.

One of the survivors, Nhor Chandeun, said he and his wife were sleeping when they heard a loud noise and felt the building vibrate then begin falling down. They were trapped for 12 hours before rescuers found them.

The government’s labour ministry said 30 workers were at the site when the building collapsed, but Nhor Chandeun said there were about 55 to 60 people inside the building.

Cambodian prime minister Hun Sen visited the site late on Sunday. Pictures released by the provincial authorities showed him in front of the collapsed building talking to several government ministers involved in the rescue.

Distraught relatives at a local hospital said around a dozen people were believed to be still entombed in the concertinaed floors of the building.

“I lost my husband and my nephew,” Khim Pov, 47, said while her son – who was able to crawl out from the debris – received treatment. “I don’t have any hope my husband has survived. The bodies being pulled out have been flattened.”

Earthmovers clear debris in Sihanoukville. Photograph: Sun Rethy Kun/AFP/Getty Images

The Chinese news agency Xinhua reported that Seng Loth, a spokesman for Cambodia’s ministry of land management, planning, and construction, said the collapsed building had been erected without permission.

“It was an unlicensed project, and the provincial authorities had warned the developer twice, but they ignored the warnings,” he told Xinhua.

The Chinese embassy in Phnom Penh released a statement on Monday which said it “supports a thorough investigation of the accident and necessary measures by competent Cambodian authority in accordance with the law”.

It said the embassy was greatly saddened by the collapse and had reached out to Chinese enterprises in Cambodia to mobilise personnel as well as heavy equipment such as excavators to clear the rubble.

Associated Press and Agence France-Presse contributed to this report.





