Baby rescued after 30 hours in rubble of collapsed building following Taiwan earthquake

Baby rescued after 30 hours in
rubble of collapsed building
following Taiwan earthquake
Rescuers in Taiwan raced on Sunday to save more
than 120 people still trapped under the rubble of a
building after it collapsed during a powerful
earthquake.
Emergency workers worked around the clock to
comb the ruins of the 17-storey building in
southern Tainan city following a 6.4 magnitude
earthquake in the early hours of Saturday.
As rescue operations continued, the death toll from
the earthquake rose to 28, with most victims -
including a ten-day-old baby girl - killed in the ill-
fated Wei-guan Golden Dragon Building.
Among those rescued from the collapsed building,
which was home to 256 residents, was a six-
month-old baby girl who was reportedly rushed to
hospital after more than 30 hours under rubble.
Anxious relatives gathering near the rescue
operations included a woman who called herself
Chang, 42, who described how she was waiting to
hear from her 24-year-old daughter who lived on
the fifth floor.
“She's not answering my phone calls,” she
said. “I am trying to hold my emotions and
stay strong. I'll do that until I find her.”
“I’ve contacted judicial units and
prosecutors have formally launched an
investigation,” said William Lai, the mayor of
Tainan, Taiwan’s oldest city.
“We’ve also commissioned three
independent bodies to preserve evidence
during the rescue so we can assist the
residents if they want to file lawsuits in the
future. We will hold the builder responsible if
they have broken the law.”
Yueh Chin-sen, whose mother-in-law’s family of
eight was still trapped, described how residents
had long complained of defects in the building.
“They complained that the building wasn’t
well constructed as there were cracks in the
walls and tiles fell off after several quakes in
recent years,” he told AFP.
“I hope the government will prosecute the
builder on criminal charges as people lost
their lives.”
Taiwan, which is located in a seismically active
Pacific Ring of Fire zone, was hit by a major 7.7
magnitude earthquake in 1999 which claimed more
than 2,400 lives.