As of June 3, a total of 3,899 residents from at least three 25-storey high-rise buildings were evacuated to nearby hotels, state-backed Global Times quoted the district government as saying. The Tianjin government called the incident a "sudden geological disaster" following preliminary information from geological experts and several government departments after they did surveying, mapping and monitoring at the site. "The situation is very rare," according to an expert questioned about the incident at the Tianjin government municipal headquarters. Experts said the high-rise buildings facing the street were affected to varying degrees. Roads could be seen buckled and warped in photos on social media, while others showed a section of wall tile from a building collapsed on the floor.

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Persons: Bernard Orr, Raju Gopalakrishnan Organizations: Global Times, Thomson Locations: BEIJING, Tianjin, Tianjin's Jinnan, China