Taiwan: Dangerous buildings identified after earthquake

At least 123 dangerous buildings have been identified in Tainan after a 6.7 magnitude earthquake hit southern Taiwan on February 6.

The earthquake affected Tainan’s Wei-guan Golden Dragon Building.

Sixty-two of the dangerous buildings have the main structures damaged or slanted and are no longer suitable for living.

Six of the buildings are to be demolished immediately.

“We expect the total number of people that we rescued to have reached 289 people. Among them were 175 survivors, 114 people were killed in the accident. Also, 96 people were sent to the hospital for medical treatment,” William Lai, Tainan Mayor said.

Local authorities are investigating the cause of the building’s collapse and earlier this week took into custody three individuals.

The developer of the Wei-guan Golden Dragon Building has been arrested on suspicion of professional negligent homicide.