Developer arrested for quake deaths

PROSECUTORS in the Taiwan city of Tainan have arrested the developer of a building that collapsed during an earthquake on Saturday killing at least 39 people, officials said yesterday, as rescue efforts turned to recovery.

The quake struck in the early hours of Saturday, at the beginning of the Lunar New Year holiday. Almost all the dead were found in the toppled Weiguan Golden Dragon Building. Two people died elsewhere in the city.

Rescuers have focused on the the 17-storey building, where more than 100 people are missing and are suspected to be buried in the rubble. No survivors have been brought out since Monday evening.

Questions have been raised about the quality of the building’s construction.

Hsiao Po-jen, the director of the legal affairs department of the Tainan city government, said that Lin Ming-hui, the Wei-guan Golden Dragon Building’s developer, had been arrested on suspicion of negligent homicide on Monday evening.

Hsiao said the information came from police and prosecutors.

Witnesses at the scene of the collapse saw large rectangular, commercial cans of cooking oil packed inside wall cavities exposed by the damage. These were apparently used as building material.

Taiwan media has also reported the presence of polystyrene in supporting beams, mixed in with concrete.

The Wei-guan, completed in 1994, was the only major high-rise building in the city of 2 million people to have completely collapsed.

Its lower storeys, filled with arcades of shops, pancaked on top of each other before the entire Ushaped complex toppled in on itself. – Reuters