Search-and-rescue teams yesterday finished clearing away most of the above-ground levels of the collapsed Weiguan Jinlong complex in Tainan, as the number of bodies discovered amid the rubble rose rapidly.
At press time last night, 31 bodies were found overnight on Thurday and yesterday, bringing the total death toll from the quake in Tainan to 95.
Twenty-seven Weiguan Jinlong residents are still unaccounted for.
Photo: Johnson Lai, AP
Most of the bodies that were retrieved over the past 24 hours had been so badly crushed that they were not readily identifiable, even by gender, rescue personnel speaking on condition of anonymity said.
At press time last night, rubble from most of the complex’s nine residential sections had been cleared away using heavy equipment, leaving buildings A and G as the focus of search efforts.
Both had been pushed several meters into the ground after buildings H and I — which formed the ends of the U-shaped complex — collapsed on top of them.
Photo: Ritchie B. Tongo, EPA
Tainan Civil Engineers’ Association president Cheng Ming-chang (鄭明昌) yesterday morning told a briefing to relatives of the missing that most of the people still unaccounted for were likely in those underground sections, which presented a particular challenge to the search teams.
Building A fell to the ground at an angle because of the soft soil and was severely damaged when Building H collapsed on top of it, he said.
Building G was similarly sandwiched under Building I, with the walls of its top story pushed down almost to street level.
Photo: Ritchie B. Tongo, EPA
While there had been concern yesterday that rain might affect rescue efforts, there should not be significant problems except for the searchers’ ease of movement now that much of the accumulated dirt had been carted away, Cheng said.
There was no timetable for dismantling the underground sections, he said.
Bodies that were retrieved yesterday were taken by ambulance to the Tainan Funeral Parlor, where DNA tests would be conducted to help determine their identities.
Photo courtsey of Chi Mei Medical Center
A Buddhist “Puja” memorial service marking the end of the first week since the disaster was held yesterday at a special memorial hall at the parlor dedicated to earthquake victims.
President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), president-elect Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), Premier Simon Chang (張善政), Legislative Speaker Su Jia-chyuan (蘇嘉全) and many other politicians attended the service.
Taiwan Rescue (中華民國搜救總隊) volunteers were pulled from the Weiguan Jinlong site in Yongkang District (永康) on Thursday night, and Tainan Deputy Mayor Tseng Hsu-cheng (曾旭正) yesterday said that there were enough personnel — a total of 919 — to handle the rest of the search, including crews from other cities and counties.
Photo: CNA
Search teams were being rotated in and out every two hours, Tseng said.
The non-governmental search-and-rescue organization withdrew after complaining that its access to the site had been restricted, preventing its members from fully participating in rescue efforts.
In other developments, the Ministry of Economic Affairs yesterday said that water service in quake-devastated areas of Tainan was set to resume last night.
Pipelines carrying water to about 30,000 households had been damaged by the quake, the National Fire Agency said.
Water would be sent via a 1km temporary above-ground pipeline, which has been connected to intact underground pipelines, the ministry said.
Additional reporting by Wang Chieh, Hsiao Ting-fang and Huang Wen-huang
Two US House of Representatives committees yesterday condemned China’s attempt to orchestrate a crash involving Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim’s (蕭美琴) car when she visited the Czech Republic last year as vice president-elect. Czech local media in March last year reported that a Chinese diplomat had run a red light while following Hsiao’s car from the airport, and Czech intelligence last week told local media that Chinese diplomats and agents had also planned to stage a demonstrative car collision. Hsiao on Saturday shared a Reuters news report on the incident through her account on social media platform X and wrote: “I
‘BUILDING PARTNERSHIPS’: The US military’s aim is to continue to make any potential Chinese invasion more difficult than it already is, US General Ronald Clark said The likelihood of China invading Taiwan without contest is “very, very small” because the Taiwan Strait is under constant surveillance by multiple countries, a US general has said. General Ronald Clark, commanding officer of US Army Pacific (USARPAC), the US Army’s largest service component command, made the remarks during a dialogue hosted on Friday by Washington-based think tank the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Asked by the event host what the Chinese military has learned from its US counterpart over the years, Clark said that the first lesson is that the skill and will of US service members are “unmatched.” The second
STANDING TOGETHER: Amid China’s increasingly aggressive activities, nations must join forces in detecting and dealing with incursions, a Taiwanese official said Two senior Philippine officials and one former official yesterday attended the Taiwan International Ocean Forum in Taipei, the first high-level visit since the Philippines in April lifted a ban on such travel to Taiwan. The Ocean Affairs Council hosted the two-day event at the National Taiwan University Hospital International Convention Center. Philippine Navy spokesman Rear Admiral Roy Vincent Trinidad, Coast Guard spokesman Grand Commodore Jay Tarriela and former Philippine Presidential Communications Office assistant secretary Michel del Rosario participated in the forum. More than 100 officials, experts and entrepreneurs from 15 nations participated in the forum, which included discussions on countering China’s hybrid warfare
MORE DEMOCRACY: The only solution to Taiwan’s current democratic issues involves more democracy, including Constitutional Court rulings and citizens exercising their civil rights , Lai said The People’s Republic of China (PRC) is not the “motherland” of the Republic of China (ROC) and has never owned Taiwan, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday. The speech was the third in a series of 10 that Lai is scheduled to deliver across Taiwan. Taiwan is facing external threats from China, Lai said at a Lions Clubs International banquet in Hsinchu. For example, on June 21 the army detected 12 Chinese aircraft, eight of which entered Taiwanese waters, as well as six Chinese warships that remained in the waters around Taiwan, he said. Beyond military and political intimidation, Taiwan
RSS