Taiwan: 2 bodies retrieved from site of collapsed building

Two more bodies have been retrieved from the site of the collapsed 17-storey building in Taiwan Wednesday morning.

The recent discoveries bring to 43, the number of people who have died, Taiwan authorities said.

The Wei-guan Golden Dragon building collapsed at about 4am local time on Saturday when a magnitude 6.7 quake struck the island nation.

Mayor of Tainan, William Lai on Monday said that over a hundred people could still be trapped under the rubble of the collapsed building.

The Tainan district court on Tuesday took into custody the developer of the Wei-guan Golden Dragon Building and two other men from the construction company’s management team.

The court said they are being held without bail on suspicion of negligent homicide while authorities finish their investigation.

“The prosecutor of Tainan District Prosecutors Office applied to detain three defendants: Lin Ming-hui, Chang Kui-bao and Cheng Jin-gui. After questioning, the judge considers it highly likely the three defendants committed negligent homicide. There were many parts of the testimonies provided by the three defendants which didn’t match up and were inconsistent,” Kuo Jen-Hsiu, Chief Judge of the Tainan District Court, said during a news conference on Tuesday.

She added that “obviously, the three defendants appear to be collaborating with each other or witnesses. If we didn’t detain them, it would be difficult to follow up and bring a case to trial.”

No survivors have been brought out since Monday evening.

A survivor said to have been detected Tuesday evening is yet to be rescued.

The Wei-guan building, completed in 1994, was the only major high-rise building in the city of two million people to have completely collapsed.