Taiwan quake survivor in hospital speaks of ordeal

President-elect Tsai Ing-wen, who will take the reins in May, said the new government would prioritize building safety.

In the early morning, emergency rescuers continue to search for the missing in a collapsed building from an natural disaster in Tainan, Taiwan, Sunday, Feb. 7, 2016.

“The smell of gas was thick in the air, and I was anxious that I would be killed by an explosion if not crushed to death in the collapsed building”, she told CNA.

The man, identified as Li Tsung-tian, was conscious and talking to rescuers as he descended from the toppled building, in Yongkang district of Tainan city, via a crane, Xinhua reported.

The spectacular fall of the high-rise raised questions about whether its construction had been shoddy.

The head of the Central Weather Bureau’s Earthquake Forecast Center said the quake’s devastating effects on Tainan City were due to a combination of geologic factors and structural factors in the city’s buildings.

Even though the 6.4-magnitude quake was shallow, few buildings were reported to have been damaged, which experts said was because Taiwan’s building standards are high. It came two days before the celebration of the Lunar New Year – one of the most important holidays in the Chinese calendar.

The two firms that built the high rise in 1983-Wei-guan Construction and Da Hsin Engineering-have both since gone out of business, reports Reuters.

Earlier a woman was pulled alive from the rubble of a collapsed building in the southern Taiwan city of Tainan and another man was found alive trapped inside more than 48 hours after a deadly quake struck, officials say.

Lin Tong-meng said he had been waiting at the site for word of his 11 and 12-year-old nephews, who have yet to be found.

The quake left 37 confirmed dead.

More than 100 people are still believed to be under the debris, stoking fears that the eventual toll could top 100 as the likelihood of survivors fades away. Efforts are underway to find 118 people still missing.

The Taiwanese government has ordered an investigation into the building’s collapse, as images emerged showing tin cans built into the walls of the toppled complex. Most are minor and cause little or no damage, though a 7.6 magnitude quake in central Taiwan in 1999 killed more than 2,300 people.

” “It is preposterous” to think that cooking oil cans would be used in a pillar for support purposes, Tai said”. I was anxious my family members have not been rescued yet after I was rescued.