Two Taiwanese have been confirmed dead after their bodies were recovered from the rubble of a Mexico City building that collapsed during Tuesday’s earthquake that has killed more than 230 people.
The body of Lin Chia-ching (林家慶) was found by rescuers at about 10:30pm on Wednesday.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday said that the family of Carolina Wang (王家妤) informed it at 5pm that her death had been confirmed.
Wang had initially been reported as having been rescued and taken to a hospital.
However, Representative to Mexico Carlos Liao (廖世傑) said on Wednesday that rescuers had heard Wang calling for help and were trying to reach her, but that she apparently died shortly afterwards.
Lin’s body was taken to a nearby morgue, Liao said, adding that a section chief of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office accompanied Lin’s mother, who had flown in from Paraguay upon hearing that her son was missing, to the mortuary to offer assistance.
Lin, who operated a computer business in Paraguay, was on a business trip to Mexico, Liao said.
Initial reports from the representative office said that Lin, Wang and three other Taiwanese were trapped in the rubble of three-story building that housed an office run by Taiwanese expatriate businessman Chen Po-wen (陳博文).
Wang was an employee of Chen’s.
The three missing Taiwanese have been named as Chen’s sister-in-law, King Pei-ju (金珮如); King’s daughter, Huang Hsien-yu (黃嫻玉); and another employee, Lai Ying-hsia (賴映遐).
The ministry said it deeply mourns the deaths of Lin and Wang and it stands ready to provide any assistance that their families may need, including helping with funeral arrangements.
The office is in close contact with the affected families and it will release additional information on the situation when it is appropriate to do so, it said.
Tuesday’s magnitude 7.1 quake hit just 12 days after a magnitude 8 earthquake struck the coast of southern Mexico.
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