• At least four people were killed in strong winds in the Chinese city of Nanchang on Sunday, according to state media.

• At least three of them were swept out of their high-rise apartments around 3 a.m., local media reported.

• The footage shows apartments with gaping holes after entire floor-to-ceiling windows have disappeared.

Three people died in China’s Jiangxi province on Sunday after being blown from their high-rise apartments by strong winds, local media reported.

All three were from the same waterfront neighborhood in southern Nanchang city and were sleeping around 3 a.m. when strong storms destroyed the outward-facing walls of their rooms, Hubei-based news media Jimu News reported.

In a message on a neighborhood chat group published by Jimu News and other regional media, three of the dead were identified as a 64-year-old woman, her 11-year-old grandson and another 60-year-old woman.

Jimu News reported that the deaths had been confirmed by local emergency authorities.

As of Tuesday morning (Beijing time), state media had not yet disclosed the exact circumstances of the deaths, but national broadcaster CCTV reported that four people had died and more than ten others had been injured that morning due to “strong convective weather conditions.”

The 60-year-old woman’s death attracted nationwide attention on social media, reaching 300 million views on Weibo, China’s version of X, as of Monday, according to data seen by Business Insider.

Footage of her 11th-floor room captured by local media showed a shattered floor-to-ceiling window with a gaping hole in the apartment overlooking the cityscape.

The clip shows an empty bed frame and torn curtains.

The woman’s partner, identified only by his surname Wan, told local reporters that he woke up to the storm at around 3 a.m. and found that the glass panes of his balcony had been shattered by the gusts.

Wan said he and his partner were sleeping in different rooms that night and he went to wake her up.

“I immediately ran into that room to call my partner. I called, but there was no answer. There was no one there to call,” he said.

He later found the body of his partner at the foot of the house, his daughter told Jimu News.

The 64-year-old woman and her grandson, surnamed Liu and Xu, were sleeping in the same room and were washed down the stairs along with their mattress, Chengdu-based Red Star News reported.

According to Red Star News, they lived on the 20th floor.

Reporters from both media published photos of the neighborhood showing apartments with missing glass facades and only damaged frames remaining.

On Monday, the Nanchang disaster management bureau said the region was expected to experience persistent strong winds and rain over the next three days, with temperatures likely to drop by about 3 degrees Celsius.

“Severe convective weather is the most common type of disaster,” the agency warned. “It occurs suddenly, has a large impact and carries a high risk of disaster.”

A new blame game

The recent deaths have drawn attention to the quality of construction in the district and its developer. One media outlet, Xinmin Weekly, pointed out that a former manager of the developer was convicted of bribing public officials between 2004 and 2019.

Former manager Li Mengping was sentenced to ten years and two months in prison in June.

While it is unclear whether there is any connection between Li and the quality of the neighborhood’s construction, the allegation touches on two sensitive issues dominating conversations in China: the central government’s crusade against rampant corruption and construction defects in the country’s currently ailing real estate market.

The affected high-rise district in Nanchang was completed in 2015, according to real estate listings in the area.

“Shouldn’t your home be a safe haven from the wind?” wrote one blogger on Weibo. “This basic function could not even be fulfilled. What is really the reason? The truth must be thoroughly investigated.”

Others said that making a connection between Li’s bribes and the integrity of the glass facades was questionable at best.

“These were installed by a decorating company found by the owner. It has nothing to do with the developer,” one person commented in a top post.

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