The seven-floor Manbo Hotel (曼波假期飯店) in Hualien County collapsed yesterday afternoon during its demolition process, crushing three vehicles.
As of press time last night, there were no casualties, local authorities said.
The Hualien County Police Department said it has reviewed footage of CCTV cameras along the road following reports that a scooter rider had been crushed by the collapse.
Photo courtesy of a member of the public via CNA
However, the rider, surnamed Wang (王), had called the county goverment to report that he was safe, and had visited the nearest police station to sign an affidavit.
The county government said it is in contact with Bai Sheng Construction Co (百盛營造), which was in charge of the demolition, to check if there might be any people trapped in the debris.
If there are none, the department said it would be deploying heavy machinery to remove the rubble and work through the night to restore road access by 10am today, although rainfall in the region would make the process more difficult.
Photo courtesy of a reader
The county government has established a category 1 disaster reaction center across the collapsed building.
It said it has asked concerned authorities to submit documents, includings permits and licenses, relating to Bai Sheng and its demolition plans to better understand what might have caused the building to collapse.
The Hualien County Fire Department said there had been a couple of fire incidents related to the crushed vehicles. Parts of the collapsed building also hit a Taiwan Power Co (台電) transformer in the area, resulting in a temporary power outage in the immediate vicinity of Guolian 5th Road and Guomin 9th Street.
Power had been restored to most users as of 4:30pm yesterday.
Bai Sheng’s subcontractor, Ya Guo Construction Co (亞國機械), yesterday said that the building’s front supporting columns could have cracked due to earthquakes or during the demolition process and were unable to support the weight of the building.
Additional reporting by CNA
Japan has deployed long-range missiles in a southwestern region near China, the Japanese defense minister said yesterday, at a time when ties with Beijing are at their lowest in recent years. The missiles were installed in Kumamoto in the southern region of Kyushu, as Japan is attempting to shore up its military capacity as China steps up naval activity in the East China Sea. “Standoff defense capabilities enable us to counter the threat of enemy forces attempting to invade our country ... while ensuring the safety of our personnel,” Japanese Minister of Defense Shinjiro Koizumi said. “This is an extremely important initiative for
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) today accepted an invitation from Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to lead a delegation to China next month, saying she hopes to promote the peaceful development of cross-strait relations and bring stability to the Taiwan Strait. “I am grateful and happy to accept this invitation,” Cheng said in a statement from the KMT chairperson’s office. Cheng said she hopes both sides can work together to promote the peaceful development of cross-strait relations, enhance exchange and cooperation, bring stability to the Taiwan Strait and improve people’s livelihoods. At today's news conference, Cheng said any efforts to
MORE POPULAR: Taiwan Pass sales increased by 59 percent during the first quarter compared with the same period last year, the Tourism Administration said The Tourism Administration yesterday said that it has streamlined the Taiwan Pass, with two versions available for purchase beginning today. The tourism agency has made the pass available to international tourists since 2024, allowing them to access the high-speed rail, Taiwan Railway Corp services, four MRT systems and four Taiwan Tourist Shuttles. Previously, five types of Taiwan Pass were available, but some tourists have said that the offerings were too complicated. The agency said only two types of Taiwan Pass would be available, starting from a three-day pass with the high-speed rail and a three-day pass with Taiwan Railway Corp. The former costs NT$2,800
The nation’s fastest supercomputer, Nano 4 (晶創26), is scheduled to be launched in the third quarter, and would be used to train large language models in finance and national defense sectors, the National Center for High-Performance Computing (NCHC) said. The supercomputer, which would operate at about 86.05 petaflops, is being tested at a new cloud computing center in the Southern Taiwan Science Park in Tainan. The exterior of the server cabinet features chip circuitry patterns overlaid with a map of Taiwan, highlighting the nation’s central position in the semiconductor industry. The center also houses Taiwania 2, Taiwania 3, Forerunner 1 and
RSS