Five Taiwanese may be trapped in the rubble of a toppled office building in Mexico City after a magnitude 7.1 earthquake jolted central Mexico on Tuesday, Representative to Mexico Carlos Liao (廖世傑) said yesterday.
The Taiwanese representative office in Mexico and a Taiwanese business association have sent people to the site to help search for the five, including businessman Chen Po-wen (陳博文), who has an office in the toppled building, Liao said.
The younger sister of Chen’s wife, surnamed King (金), her daughter and another Taiwanese businessman surnamed Lin (林) were reportedly among the five trapped.
Nine Mexican employees were also believed to have been in Chen’s office when the earthquake struck, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.
Liao said the earthquake struck at lunchtime when many people were in the streets, limiting the number of casualties it might otherwise have caused.
The ministry said it had conveyed its condolences to Mexico, on behalf of the government and people of Taiwan, immediately after the deadly earthquake struck the country.
Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Jose Maria Liu (劉德立) expressed condolences and solidarity with Mexico in a telephone call with Mexican Representative to Taiwan Martin Torres, the ministry said in a press release.
Liu told the envoy that as Taiwan also lies in an area of high seismic activity, its people understand the trauma and pain Mexicans are feeling right now, the statement said.
The Taiwanese government has promised to offer assistance to Mexico by sending search-and-rescue personnel and post-disaster relief.
“If Mexico needs our help, Taiwan’s search-and-rescue personnel and dogs are fully prepared and can fly to Mexico immediately to offer help,” Executive Yuan spokesman Hsu Kuo-yung (徐國勇) said.
The Overseas Community Affairs Council said in a statement yesterday that it has initiated an emergency communication mechanism to gather information about the personal safety of Taiwanese in Mexico and would work together with the representative office to provide needed assistance to those affected.
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