More bodies were extricated from the collapsed Weiguan Jinlong complex in Tainan’s Yongkang District (永康) yesterday, raising the death toll from Saturday’s earthquake to 47.
The 17-story complex, which consisted of four buildings divided into nine residential sections, has been the main source of casualties from the magnitude 6.4 quake.
Among the 47 people killed in the quake, 45 were found in the Weiguan Jinlong ruins.
Photo: Anthony Wallace, AFP
Rescuers yesterday continued the painstaking search for at least 90 people who remain unaccounted for, all believed to be trapped in the collapsed complex.
At midnight yesterday, they were encouraged to hear a person inside knocking on the wall.
While that person has yet to be found, five more bodies were retrieved and identified yesterday, including a married couple, a woman and two Kun Shan University students.
Photo: Anthony Wallace, AFP
The students were identified as Tsai Meng-chia (蔡孟家) and Huang Juo-hsin (黃若欣).
Rescue workers said that Tsai appeared to have tried to protect his girlfriend, as his body was on top of hers.
As of press time last night, statistics from the Central Emergency Operations Center showed that the quake had injured 548 people, including 84 who have been hospitalized.
Tainan Deputy Mayor Tseng Hsu-cheng (曾旭正) said in a briefing to relatives of the missing that rescuers would stop trying to retrieve the bodies that showed no vital signs, but would mark their locations so they could be extricated later.
It was a measure that they have to take at this point, Tseng said.
“Every time we find a body, the excavator has to stop operating and search teams have to find a way to bring the body out of the building. The entire process, on average, takes about three to four hours,” he said.
“We have to take this measure to avoid further delays in finding possible survivors and rescue efforts could continue uninterrupted,” the deputy mayor said.
In other developments, one of the quake survivors said on social media that renovations in the lower stories of the Weiguan Jinlong complex contributed to its collapse.
The woman, surnamed Cheng (鄭), said on Facebook that all of the beams, columns and walls on the first to fourth floors of buildings A, B and C were removed seven years ago by the owner, a woman surnamed Lan (藍), so she could charge more rent.
Cheng, who posted a photograph and written statement, said the structural changes were reported to local authorities, but were not pursued.
Tainan Civil Engineers’ Association president Cheng Ming-chang (鄭明昌) said that a building’s structure would be weakened if all of the beams, columns and walls were removed from any of the floors.
Judging by the photograph, if what the netizen said was true, then the structural changes should be investigated, he said.
Cheng Ming-chang, who has been assisting in the search-and-rescue operations, said that the association would prepare a structural assessment report on the buildings and submit its observations to prosecutors.
The Tainan District Prosecutors’ Office is investigating the possible use of substandard materials and methods by one of the construction companies that built the Weiguan Jinlong complex.
A Ministry of Foreign Affairs official yesterday said that a delegation that visited China for an APEC meeting did not receive any kind of treatment that downgraded Taiwan’s sovereignty. Department of International Organizations Director-General Jonathan Sun (孫儉元) said that he and a group of ministry officials visited Shenzhen, China, to attend the APEC Informal Senior Officials’ Meeting last month. The trip went “smoothly and safely” for all Taiwanese delegates, as the Chinese side arranged the trip in accordance with long-standing practices, Sun said at the ministry’s weekly briefing. The Taiwanese group did not encounter any political suppression, he said. Sun made the remarks when
The Taiwanese passport ranked 33rd in a global listing of passports by convenience this month, rising three places from last month’s ranking, but matching its position in January last year. The Henley Passport Index, an international ranking of passports by the number of designations its holder can travel to without a visa, showed that the Taiwan passport enables holders to travel to 139 countries and territories without a visa. Singapore’s passport was ranked the most powerful with visa-free access to 192 destinations out of 227, according to the index published on Tuesday by UK-based migration investment consultancy firm Henley and Partners. Japan’s and
BROAD AGREEMENT: The two are nearing a trade deal to reduce Taiwan’s tariff to 15% and a commitment for TSMC to build five more fabs, a ‘New York Times’ report said Taiwan and the US have reached a broad consensus on a trade deal, the Executive Yuan’s Office of Trade Negotiations said yesterday, after a report said that Washington is set to reduce Taiwan’s tariff rate to 15 percent. The New York Times on Monday reported that the two nations are nearing a trade deal to reduce Taiwan’s tariff rate to 15 percent and commit Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) to building at least five more facilities in the US. “The agreement, which has been under negotiation for months, is being legally scrubbed and could be announced this month,” the paper said,
MIXED SOURCING: While Taiwan is expanding domestic production, it also sources munitions overseas, as some, like M855 rounds, are cheaper than locally made ones Taiwan and the US plan to jointly produce 155mm artillery shells, as the munition is in high demand due to the Ukraine-Russia war and should be useful in Taiwan’s self-defense, Armaments Bureau Director-General Lieutenant General Lin Wen-hsiang (林文祥) told lawmakers in Taipei yesterday. Lin was responding to questions about Taiwan’s partnership with allies in producing munitions at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee. Given the intense demand for 155mm artillery shells in Ukraine’s defense against the Russian invasion, and in light of Taiwan’s own defensive needs, Taipei and Washington plan to jointly produce 155mm shells, said Lin,
RSS