Beijing: A two story restaurant in a Northern China village collapsed and 29 people died on Saturday. According to the official sources the restaurant collapsed during an 80th birthday celebration for a resident.  Particularly in rural areas such as Shanxi province’s Xiangfen County, about 630 kilometers (400 miles) southwest of Beijing, where the restaurant was located.

The Ministry of Emergency Management said another 28 people were injured, seven of them seriously when the building suddenly crumbled on Saturday. 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 official China Daily newspaper said the building collapsed at 9:40 a.m. on Saturday. It said the Cabinet’s Work Safety Commission would oversee the investigation into the accident’s cause. 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.