Girl aged eight saved from collapsed flats in Taiwan

AT LEAST four people, including an eight-year-old girl, were rescued from a high-rise apartment building in Taiwan yesterday, two days after it was toppled by a powerful earthquake.

Meanwhile, frustration was growing among families as they waited for rescuers to try to reach their relations. More than 100 people are believed still to be in the debris.

The quake struck during the lunar new year, the most important family holiday in the Chinese calendar. At least 38 people died in Tainan city in southern Taiwan, all but two in the collapse of the 17-storey building.

Even though the 6.4-magnitude tremor was shallow, few buildings were reported to have been damaged, which experts said was because Taiwan’s building standards are high.

The authorities have managed to rescue more than 170 people from the building, the majority in the hours after the quake.

Five survivors were believed to have been pulled out on Sunday, and at least four yesterday. One of them, Tsao Weiling, called out “Here I am” as rescuers dug through to find her, Taiwan’s Eastern Broadcasting Corp reported. She was found under the body of her husband, who had shielded her from a collapsed beam, the government-run Central News Agency reported. Her two-year-old son was also found dead and five other members of the family remained unaccounted for, it said.

Teams also rescued a 42-year-old man from the building, and an eightyear-old girl, who had been trapped for more than 61 hours. The city’s mayor, Lai Ching-Te, told reporters: “She is awake, but looks dehydrated.”

Shortly afterwards, rescue workers also pulled out a 28-year-old Vietnamese woman.

Tensions rose as family members of the missing flooded into an information centre, demanding to speak directly to rescue workers to get the latest information.

A couple sitting in a small room where officials release information said they had heard no news about their daughter-in-law and two young grandsons.

The collapse of the apartment block, which was built in 1989, raised questions about whether its construction had been shoddy. The government said it would investigate.