Tainan Mayor Lai Categorizes Rescue Efforts On ‘Third Stage'; Number of Fatalities Will Probably Exceed 100
After the 6.5 magnitude earthquake that hit Taiwan recently, rescuers and officials found hope when life-detecting equipment had found signs of life at the site of the collapsed building, Korea Herald wrote Sunday. However, Tainan's emergency center, the hardest-hit city, announced that there were still more than 100 people missing and were suspected have been buried and trapped deep under the wreckage.
The earthquake hit Taiwan on Saturday dawn, which severely smashed up several buildings in the city of Tainan. It came two days before the celebration of the Lunar New Year - one of the most important holidays in the Chinese calendar. The earthquake's magnitude brought down Tainan's famous 17-storey high-rise Wei-Guan Golden Dragon Building. According to the report, rescue officers were able to pull out more than 240 survivors from the toppled building, assist about 484 injured individuals and rescue more than 340 victims throughout Tainan.
Reuters reported that Tainan Mayor William Lai visited a funeral home where he announced that rescue efforts were already categorized under the "third stage." He said that there were "more fatalities than those pulled out (alive), and the number of fatalities will probably exceed 100."
The collapse of the high-rise building raised questions about the quality of its construction. This fueled Taiwan's Interior Minister Chen Wei Zen to perform a thorough investigation of the building's condition and examine whether its developer had grave shortcomings. Similarly, outgoing President Ma Ying Jeou remarked that the government should do a better job in ensuring the management and quality of buildings in the country.
"In the near future, regarding building management, we will have some further improvements. We will definitely do this work well," said President Ma.
Taiwan is regularly hit by earthquakes as it is situated near two tectonic plates' intersection. In 1999 a 7.6 magnitude hit central Taiwan, killing more than 2,000 individuals.
