Majority of the victims were residents of Wei-Guan which investigators found to have used tin cans as construction material to reinforce cement.
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Rescue workers using excavators continue to search the rubble of a collapsed building complex in Tainan, Taiwan, Tuesday, Feb. 9, 2016.
Lin Ming-hui, the developer of the collapsed 17-storey Wei-Guan Golden Dragon Building, was arrested on Monday by Taiwan prosecutors on suspicion of negligent homicide.
Prosecutors in the city requested court permission Tuesday to detain three former executives of the real estate development company that constructed the building but is no longer in operation, including the Weiguan company’s former chairman and two other former executives.
The building, constructed in 1994, is one of 11 structures that collapsed on Saturday, but the only high-rise tower in the city to have been reduced to rubble in the quake.
Though Su-chin’s ordeal is over, officials say that more than 100 people are likely still trapped inside the remains of the building.
The government in Tainan, the worst-hit city, said that more than 170 people had been rescued from the 17-story building, which folded like an accordion after the quake struck. Those figures are expected to rise, as more than 100 people are still believed to be trapped inside the building, according to Taiwan’s Central News Agency.
And time is running out: By 4am yesterday, people had been trapped for 72 hours, a milestone after which rescue is rare. One woman recovered alive on Monday was found beneath her dead husband’s body.
A man who was rescued with her told how he wedged himself against a wall for 20 hours to avoid smothering her. “Toward the end, to tell you the truth, I had already given up”, said Ko Ching-chung.
There have been some dramatic rescues, including a eight-year-old girl and three others pulled from the wreckage on Monday. Rescuers had detected life within the area where the 16th-floor apartment of her son and his family were thought to be, and were said to have heard the sound of a child.
Lin Jianfang was startled awake before dawn on Saturday by violent tremors as a massive quake rocked southern Taiwan.
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The quake struck the weekend before Chinese New Year, when many relatives would have joined families to enjoy the holiday.
