Construction collapse in southeast China kills dozens at plant

BEIJING — Dozens of workers were crushed to death under an avalanche of scaffolding, cement and steel rods in southeast China on Thursday after a platform in an unfinished tower of a coal power plant collapsed.

Yang Huanning, the director of the State Administration of Work Safety, was rushing to the power plant, about 750 miles south of Beijing, to oversee the rescue efforts, his office said.

“Strengthen oversight and preventive measures,” the prime minister, Li Keqiang, said in instructions about the accident issued on the central government’s website.

Photographs from the scene showed firefighters and other rescuers standing on piles of twisted and shattered concrete and metal rods.