The death toll from the earthquake on Saturday last week rose to 62 yesterday as rescuers pulled nine bodies from the ruins of the Weiguan Jinlong complex in Tainan, while rain that began to fall at about 5pm brought with it lower temperatures.
Members of two families were among those retrieved from the disaster site in Yongkang District (永康), including two brothers, and a man and a woman whose identity has yet to be confirmed.
One of the families, surnamed Cheng (鄭), were from New Taipei City’s Sindian District and were spending the Lunar New Year holiday in an apartment on the 13th floor of Building G, which was owned by the sister of Cheng’s wife.
Photo: Johnson Lai, AP
Four members of the other family, surnamed Tsai (蔡), died in the quake. The father is the only survivor. Rescuers said that the grandmother of the family was holding tight to her granddaughter when their bodies were found.
As of 5:44pm, the Tainan City Government said 62 people are still believed to be under the rubble.
A woman whose relatives are among those still missing in the ruins yesterday accused the city of allowing a large excavator to be driven onto the remains of Building G to rescue survivors.
Photo: Chang Chia-ming, Taipei Times
She said that the additional weight of the excavator could further crush the bodies of the victims still under the rubble.
Tainan Mayor William Lai (賴清德) apologized to the relatives of the missing, saying the leader of a rescue team had mistakenly allowed the large piece of machinery to be moved into a cordoned-off area.
He said he had asked that the excavator be removed immediately.
However, Lai defended the use of large excavators, saying that they were being used to save lives by helping clear the way for search teams to find survivors and preserve the bodies of the deceased.
Structural engineers assisting the rescue teams at the site said that having an excavator on top of the building should not hurt any possible survivors or bodies because the building was supported by at least two beams and a wall.
Heavy rainfall did impede the search efforts later in the day and military personnel covered several locations with tarps in an attempt to prevent the rain from triggering further collapses inside the rubble.
Meanwhile, the electronics store chain TsannKuen Co (燦坤實業) denied that it had remodeled a store on the ground floor of the Weiguang Jinlong complex.
TsannKuen general manager Chang Yueh-long (張岳龍) showed reporters photographs of the store when they leased it as well as the contract banning the firm from making structural changes.
“We have rented the ground floor and the second floor since 2004 and never remodeled them,” Chang said.
There have been allegations that the landlord who owned the first four floors of buildings A, B and C in the complex had removed all of the beams and columns on those floors, which might have made the buildings less stable in an earthquake.
‘TAIWAN-FRIENDLY’: The last time the Web site fact sheet removed the lines on the US not supporting Taiwanese independence was during the Biden administration in 2022 The US Department of State has removed a statement on its Web site that it does not support Taiwanese independence, among changes that the Taiwanese government praised yesterday as supporting Taiwan. The Taiwan-US relations fact sheet, produced by the department’s Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, previously stated that the US opposes “any unilateral changes to the status quo from either side; we do not support Taiwan independence; and we expect cross-strait differences to be resolved by peaceful means.” In the updated version published on Thursday, the line stating that the US does not support Taiwanese independence had been removed. The updated
‘CORRECT IDENTIFICATION’: Beginning in May, Taiwanese married to Japanese can register their home country as Taiwan in their spouse’s family record, ‘Nikkei Asia’ said The government yesterday thanked Japan for revising rules that would allow Taiwanese nationals married to Japanese citizens to list their home country as “Taiwan” in the official family record database. At present, Taiwanese have to select “China.” Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said the new rule, set to be implemented in May, would now “correctly” identify Taiwanese in Japan and help protect their rights, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. The statement was released after Nikkei Asia reported the new policy earlier yesterday. The name and nationality of a non-Japanese person marrying a Japanese national is added to the
AT RISK: The council reiterated that people should seriously consider the necessity of visiting China, after Beijing passed 22 guidelines to punish ‘die-hard’ separatists The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) has since Jan. 1 last year received 65 petitions regarding Taiwanese who were interrogated or detained in China, MAC Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday. Fifty-two either went missing or had their personal freedoms restricted, with some put in criminal detention, while 13 were interrogated and temporarily detained, he said in a radio interview. On June 21 last year, China announced 22 guidelines to punish “die-hard Taiwanese independence separatists,” allowing Chinese courts to try people in absentia. The guidelines are uncivilized and inhumane, allowing Beijing to seize assets and issue the death penalty, with no regard for potential
‘UNITED FRONT’ FRONTS: Barring contact with Huaqiao and Jinan universities is needed to stop China targeting Taiwanese students, the education minister said Taiwan has blacklisted two Chinese universities from conducting academic exchange programs in the nation after reports that the institutes are arms of Beijing’s United Front Work Department, Minister of Education Cheng Ying-yao (鄭英耀) said in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper) published yesterday. China’s Huaqiao University in Xiamen and Quanzhou, as well as Jinan University in Guangzhou, which have 600 and 1,500 Taiwanese on their rolls respectively, are under direct control of the Chinese government’s political warfare branch, Cheng said, citing reports by national security officials. A comprehensive ban on Taiwanese institutions collaborating or
RSS