Taiwan quake death toll hits 24, with 120 still missing
The death toll from the recent earthquake measuring 6.4 on the Richter scale in southern Taiwan has climbed to 24, with 126 people still believed to be trapped in rubble.
The number of the fatalities rose as emergency workers dug for survivors of the tremor that destroyed a 16-story apartment complex in the Taiwanese city of Tainan on Saturday.
The emergency center in Tainan said 171 had been rescued from the building while more than 100 people were brought to safety in other parts of the city.
Tainan mayor, William Lai, said among the 126 residents still missing, 103 are trapped “very deep” in the rubble.
“There’s no way to get to them direct, it’s very difficult,” Lai said.
Emergency workers were using ladders, cranes and sniffer dogs to trace and extract the survivors of the incident.
Among the 24 people confirmed dead by quake, 22 died in the Tainan apartment complex collapse. Officials said a probe had been launched into the incident.
The Tainan mayor said survivors and relatives had reported legal “violations,” adding, “I’ve contacted judicial units and prosecutors have formally launched an investigation.”
The company that constructed the residential building had gone out of business, according to local media reports, which also raised questions over the quality of the materials used in the complex.
“We’ve also commissioned three independent bodies to preserve evidence during the rescue so we can assist the residents if they want to file lawsuits in the future. We will hold the builder responsible if they have broken the law,” Lai added.
The quake struck at a shallow depth of 10 kilometers (six miles) at around 4:00 a.m. local time on Saturday (2000 GMT on Friday) near the Taiwanese city of Kaohsiung.
Earthquakes frequently jolt Taiwan, but most of them cause little or no damage.
The island nation’s worst tremor in recent decades was a 7.6 magnitude quake in September 1999 that left around 2,400 people dead.
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