Survivors pulled out from building 2 days after Taiwan quake
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Two emergency workers carry a victim recovered from a collapsed building in Tainan, Taiwan today. Rescuers today found signs of life within the remains of a high-rise residential building that collapsed in a powerful, shallow earthquake in southern Taiwan that killed over a dozen people and injured hundreds.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Emergency rescuers continue to search for missing in a collapsed building from an earthquake in Tainan, Taiwan today. Rescuers today found signs of life within the remains of a high-rise residential building that collapsed in a powerful, shallow earthquake in southern Taiwan that killed over a dozen people and injured hundreds.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
An emergency worker carries a rescued six month old baby girl from the rubble of a collapsed building in Tainan, Taiwan today. Rescuers today found signs of life within the remains of a high-rise residential building that collapsed in a powerful, shallow earthquake in southern Taiwan that killed over a dozen people and injured hundreds.
TAINAN, Taiwan » Two survivors — one found shielded under the body of her husband — were pulled out alive from a toppled high-rise apartment building on Monday, two days after a powerful quake that killed at least 36.
Taiwan’s Eastern Broadcasting Corp. reported that Tsao Wei-ling called out “Here I am” as rescuers dug through to find her. A male survivor was pulled out conscious from the sixth floor section of the folded 17-story building, according to a notice posted at a rescue information center on site.
Rescuers also found signs of life from a 28-year-old woman who is a migrant worker and an 8-year-old girl, both conscious but trapped in the fifth-floor section.
More than 100 people are believed to be still buried in the collapsed building from a disaster that struck during the most important family holiday in the Chinese calendar — the Lunar New Year holiday.
The government in Tainan, the worst-hit city, said that more than 170 people had been rescued from the 17-story building, which folded like an accordion after the quake struck.
The death toll from Saturday’s powerful 6.4-magnitude quake in south Taiwan stood at 36. Thirty-four of those were from the building collapse in Tainan city, and two other people died elsewhere in the city.
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Rescuers said Tsao was found under the body of her husband, who had shielded her from a collapsed beam, Taiwan’s government-run Central News Agency reported. Her husband and 2-year-son were found dead, while five members of her family remained unaccounted for, it said.
Earthquakes frequently rattle Taiwan, but most are minor and cause little or no damage, though a magnitude-7.6 quake in central Taiwan in 1999 killed more than 2,300 people.
The spectacular fall of the high-rise, built in 1989, raised questions about whether its construction had been shoddy. Tainan’s government said the building had not been listed as a dangerous structure, and Taiwan’s interior minister, Chen Wei-zen, said an investigation would examine whether the developer had cut corners.
The extended Lunar New Year holiday officially started Monday, but celebrations were subdued and both President Ma Ying-jeou and President-elect Tsai Ing-wen canceled the handing out of envelopes of cash in their hometowns, a holiday tradition for Taiwan’s leader.
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Associated Press writer Louise Watt and news assistant Henry Hou in Beijing, and Christopher Bodeen in Qingdao, China, contributed to this report.
