A hotel being used as a coronavirus quarantine centre in China has collapsed, leaving 70 people trapped.

The five-storey building in Fujian province was being used to house and observe people who had come into contact with Covid-19 patients when it collapsed at around 7:30pm local time.

At least 29 people have so far been rescued from the wreckage of the Xinjia Express Hotel in Quanzhou, according to the Ministry of Emergency Management.

Nearly 150 firefighters are thought to be engaged in the rescue operation. Footage shared to social media shows emergency service workers clambering among the rubble and using powerful torches to search for survivors.

“I was just having dinner and I suddenly heard a loud bang and thought it was an explosion,” South China Morning Post reported a man who lived in the building opposite as telling state-affiliated media.

“It was not until I ran to my balcony that I saw that the entire hotel building had collapsed.”