The Ministry of Emergency Management says another 28 people were injured, seven of them seriously, when the building suddenly crumbled during an 80th birthday celebration for a resident on Saturday.
A total of 57 people were brought out alive, the ministry said.
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There was no immediate word on what caused the collapse or on the fate of the birthday guest and other celebrants.
The restaurant was in Shanxi province’s Xiangfen county, about 630 kilometres (400 miles) southwest of Beijing.
Hundreds of rescue workers wearing hardhats and face masks had searched the rubble, lifting slabs of concrete in hopes of freeing survivors.
