A Taiwanese woman trapped in a collapsed hotel in Myanmar following a magnitude 7.7 earthquake on Friday last week is believed to be dead, a Taiwanese businessman based in the Southeast Asian country said today.
A rescue team with search-and-rescue dogs and life detectors found no signs of life in the collapsed Great Wall Hotel Mandalay yesterday afternoon, Myanmar Taiwan Business Association secretary-general Lo Chen-hua (羅振華) said.
Photo: Reuters
This led to the belief that one of the people trapped in the hotel, a Taiwanese citizen identified as the wife of a Taiwanese man surnamed Lin (林), is dead, Lo said.
The Lins arrived in Mandalay a few days ago as tourists and were staying at the Great Wall Hotel during their visit, Lo said.
Lin was more fortunate when the earthquake struck at 12:50pm on Friday, as he was standing near the hotel's main entrance and was able to escape, sustaining only minor injuries to his arms and head during the process, Lo said.
However, Lin's wife was trapped with a number of hotel staffers on the ground floor after the building partially collapsed, Lo said.
For a day or two Lin was able to communicate with his wife via one of the trapped staffer's walkie talkie, Lo said.
Lin said that the rescuers are now trying to locate the bodies of deceased.
If they are able to find the Taiwanese, her body is to be moved to a nearby overseas Taiwanese convention center in Mandalay.
Her body would cremated before returning to Taiwan with her husband, he said.
Meanwhile, a Taiwanese diplomat based in Yangon finally arrived in Mandalay last night and visited the collapsed hotel, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in Taipei.
Traffic to Mandalay, about 620km north of Yangon, was obstructed due to damaged roads after the strong earthquake, the ministry said.
Upon arrival, the diplomat was told that the trapped woman had no vital signs, it said in a statement.
The diplomat expressed the government's condolences to Lin.
Representative to Myanmar Chou Chung-hsing (周中興) also telephoned Lin and pledged that the government would help him deal with the aftermath of his wife's death, the ministry said.
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