Rescuers carry 21-year-old Shen Dailu from the rubble on Friday afternoon after a residential building collapsed in Fenghua, Zhejiang province, in the morning. [Photo by Zhang Peijian/for China Daily] More photos

One resident in the neighborhood told Xinhua News Agency he found cracks in the building in October.

"I reported it to government officials, but they said the building was safe for another couple of years," he said. "I even called the local television station about the safety problem this morning before the building came down."

Zhuo Houjia, deputy mayor of Fenghua, said at a news briefing that the building was registered by the local government in December as "unsafe".

Zhuo said the authorities began a survey of unsafe buildings in December 2012, but it took about a year to discover problems in the one that collapsed - building No 29 in the Jujing community.

The community has 200-plus similar buildings and is home to more than 10,000 people.

The local authority said it had been working on a repair plan for the building after the typhoon in 2013, but had made no evacuation plans, as officials did not believe the situation was that dangerous.

Residents in some other buildings in the community were evacuated when these buildings were considered unsafe two years ago, Xinhua News Agency said.

Contact the writers at yanyiqi@chinadaily.com.cn and pengyining@chinadaily.com.cn.

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