29 killed as a restaurant collapses in China during a birthday party…

29 killed and other 29 injured in a northern China village when a two-story restaurant collapsed during an 80th birthday celebration for a resident.

Seven among the injured are serious. A total of 57 people were brought out alive. There was no immediate word on what caused the collapse or on the fate of the birthday guest and other celebrants.

Hundreds of rescue workers using sniffer dogs, cranes and high-tech sensors had searched the rubble, lifting slabs of concrete in hopes of freeing survivors.

The region lies in the heart of China’s coal country, where thousands of miners have died in explosions, collapses and floods over past years.