Taiwan earthquake toll rises to 108 as more bodies recovered

At least 22 people are still believed to be trapped under the rubble of the 17-storey apartment building that collapsed in the tremor.

Taiwanese rescue teams pulled out the bodies of 30 more victims from under the rubble of the high-rise building on Friday, taking the official death toll past 100 a week after the magnitude 6.4 earthquake struck.

With this, the toll has risen to 108, officials of the Tainan City Disaster Response Center said.

The officials have said at least 22 people are still believed to be trapped under the rubble of the 17-storey apartment building that collapsed in the tremor.

Taiwan had arrested the developer the Weiguan complex after initial inquiries found there were building violations. A Taiwan court also ordered confiscation of the assets of the builder on Friday.

Lin Ming-hui, the builder of the Wei-guan Golden Dragon Building that was responsible for most of the casualties in the earthquake, has been charged with negligent homicide.

Local reports earlier said he had gone out of business and there were questions about the quality of building materials used. It was reported that witnesses saw large, rectangular commercial metal cans were packed inside wall cavities, suggesting these were used as building material.

The tremor, which struck 43 km southeast of Tainan, was a shallow one at a depth of 23 km.

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