BEIJING (AP) — Heavy rain caused a retaining wall to collapse at a recycling plant in the eastern Chinese city of Qingdao on Sunday, killing 18 people, state media reported.

The wall that collapsed crushed a house for workers in which 40 people were gathered, the Qingdao government information office said.

The wall collapsed due to waterlogging after a rainstorm, the official Xinhua News Agency reported. It said 18 people were killed and three others were injured.

Authorities were investigating the collapse.

China’s eastern coastal and southern regions have been drenched by heavy rains in recent days. Two other deaths in Hunan province and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region were linked to the rains as flooding and landslides hit swaths of the country.

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