Survivor pulled out from building 2 days after Taiwan quake

This is the street in Tainan, Taiwan, where the Weiguan Jinlong high-rise building collapsed in a magnitude-6.4 quake that rocked the region on Saturday.

Before that, rescuers saved a woman who was partly shielded by her dead husband, on the seventh floor of the Wei Guan building.

A powerful, shallow natural disaster struck southern Taiwan before dawn Saturday.

Rescuers said it appeared her husband’s body had protected her from a falling beam.

The grounds around the collapsed building are crowded with emergency responders and volunteers.

It was a frightening ordeal, one that she has dealt with before.

“Many people are still trapped and our hearts are sinking”, said Ma.

A couple sitting in a small room where officials release information said they had heard no news about their son and his family, including their young grandsons.

It reported that the most powerful tremors, which registered 6 on a seismic scale of 7, had even been felt in Yunlin County, around an hour’s drive to the north of Tainan.

Officials said 121 people are still unaccounted for, according to CNA news agency.

Taiwan lies at the convergence of two tectonic plates and so sees periodic earthquakes. The capital of Taipei had no signs of damage after the quake.

What happened to Weiguan Jinlong apartment building, which was built in 1989, after the quake has raised questions whether the building has been poorly developed or not.

Television footage showed two small children wrapped in blankets being plucked from the building.

“Using them in the main structure would be against the national building code”, he said.

“I saw buildings shake up and down and left and right”, said one resident. “But this particular apartment complex is as damaged as it is”. A woman had also been freed earlier according to rescuers.

He was rushed to hospital for treatment but may have to undergo amputation for injuries on the left leg. “I was so afraid”.

Interior minister Chen Wei-jen said he feared there may be more people in the building than usual as family members would have returned to celebrate the Lunar New Year holidays next week.

“Doctors climbed to the site to try to amputate his leg because it was stuck, but that did not work”, Tainan mayor William Lai had told reporters before Lee was rescued.

The latest quake occurred as Taiwan was preparing to celebrate the Lunar New Year, a major holiday that began Monday and during which people travel to be with family.

Previous reports said more than 460 people were injured. The company doesn’t need to adjust its first-quarter guidance, she added.