Taiwan developer arrested over earthquake building collapse

The developer of a building in Taiwan which collapsed during an earthquake last weekend has been arrested on suspicion of negligent homicide.

Large rectangular commercial cans of cooking-oil, packed inside wall cavities exposed by the damage have been witnessed on site at the Wei-guan Golden Dragon Building. They were apparently being used as building material.

Taiwan media has also reported the presence of polystyrene in supporting beams, mixed in with concrete.

Hsiao Po-jen, director of the legal affairs department of the Tainan city government confirmed that Lin Ming-hui, the developer of the Wei-guan Golden Dragon Building was arrested on Monday evening.

Officials say that at least 39 people died when the building in Tainan city collpased on Saturday at 4am local time with almost all of the dead found in the Wei-guan Golden Dragon Building.

Since then, rescue work has focused on the wreckage of the 17-storey building, where more than 100 people are listed as missing and are suspected to be buried deep under the rubble.

No survivors have been brought out since Monday evening.

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

Its lower storeys, filled with arcades of shops, pancaked on top of each other before the entire U-shaped complex toppled in on itself.

Reuters