A mourning service was held in Tainan city today, which marks the seventh day since the quake.
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The 16-storey Wei Guan building fell down toward a road on its east side seconds after the natural disaster, according to an official update on the casualties.
Mourners bowed and lit incense before portraits of the victims arranged in rows.
While no survivors from Saturday’s magnitude 6.4 tremor have been found since Monday, the death toll from the Weiguan Jinlong apartment complex in Yongkong district has continued to rise.
About nine people are believed to be missing and presumed trapped under the rubble.
The developer of the building, Lin Ming-hui, remains in custody and has been charged with professional negligence resulting in death.
Pictures of the ruins, which showed that tin cans and foam were used as fillers in the concrete, have exacerbated public anger over the latest safety scandal to hit the island. He has not been detained.
The government has also identified land owned by Lin – totaling at least 30 plots in Tainan – and has directed local authorities to prevent any sale of those assets.
The four of them are linked to a building that collapsed during an quake.
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Earthquakes frequently strike Taiwan but usually cause little or no damage, particularly since more stringent building regulations were introduced following a magnitude-7.6 quake in 1999 that killed more than 2,300.
