Developers of toppled Taiwan building detained

Taiwan police have arrested three executives of a defunct construction firm that built a high-rise whose collapsed resulted in most of the 45 deaths confirmed after a weekend natural disaster.

Lin Ming-hui, the Wei-guan Golden Dragon Building’s developer, and two other men from his management team are being held without bail on suspicion of negligent homicide while the authorities finish their investigation, the Tainan District Court said in a statement.

Rescue workers using excavators continue to search the rubble of a collapsed building complex in Tainan, Taiwan, Wednesday, Feb. 10, 2016.

The residential tower was toppled by a magnitude 6.4 quake that struck Taiwan at around 4 a.m. Saturday, only two days ahead of the Lunar New Year.

Tainan Mayor William Lai ordered rescuers to start using diggers and extractors to remove giant concrete slabs to better detect signs of life which have been found in three different areas. “The golden 72 hours of rescue is the standard, but there are many exceptions”, he said, after visiting two survivors in hospital.

Many are suggesting that these cans were used as a cheap filler in the building’s construction, and this might have had some role in the collapse of the building in the quake.

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. Due to the island’s frequent tectonic activity, Taiwan has extremely strict building codes, which survivors allege were violated during the construction of the complex. Doctors said surgeries were not urgently needed as she had only bruises on her body and necrosis in small parts of her pelvises.

Most of the 320 people rescued were saved soon after the quake, in which the building collapsed onto itself before toppling over onto its side.

Most earthquakes in Taiwan are relatively minor and cause little or no damage.

Four more survivors were rescued Monday, among them an eight-year-old girl who spent more than 60 hours trapped in the wreckage.

It would take rescuers almost 11 hours to dig down one meter if they dug manually, and excavators would help open up pathways for rescue officers, remarked Lai.

Emergency medical and military vehicles dot Yongda Road, where the building once stood, in parallel with bright paper lanterns hung up to celebrate the usually joyous Chinese New Year holiday.