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.
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