Taiwan February 2016 Earthquake (Photo : Reuters)
The death toll of the 6.4 magnitude tremor that shook Taiwan at 4 a.m. on Saturday rose to seven people. Most of the victims were residents of the collapsed 17-storey Wei-guan Golden Dragon Building in Yongkang District of Tainan.
However, it was just one of 13 buildings damaged by the temblor, reported China Daily. Eight buildings totally collapsed and five edifices, also in Tainan City, partially collapsed.
According to the U.S. Geological Survey, the epicenter of the earthquake was 43 kilometers southeast of Tainan. The quake had a depth of 23 kilometers.
Among the seven victims is a 10-year-old girl, one of the five dead people who were residents of the ill-fated Wei-guan, prompting questions to arise over the building’s construction.
A total of 318 were hospitalized because of injuries, while 246 residents of Wei-gan Golden Dragon were evacuated. But 10 people from over 90 households in the residential building are still missing.
To save the residents, rescuers used hydraulic ladders and a crane to search the wreckage. The rescue operations plucked more than 120 residents of Wei-gan to safety. While five other buildings tilted at alarming angles, the focus of rescue efforts for now is on the Yongkang apartment block.
Not all rescue work was done by firefighters. Residents also extended help if they could, such as a plumber who used his tools to remove window bars to rescue a woman who was crying for help. However, he could no longer help the woman’s husband, who was also trapped inside the building, because of his fear of a gas explosion as the smell of leaking gas hung in the air. The plumber added that his ladder was not long enough to reach other residents crying for help.
